The Janitor and the Music Teacher
by Tattysecondhandbook
Summary: Beca Mitchell was a janitor. It was as simple as that. She didn't speak to anybody, or, nobody spoke to her. Nobody WANTED to speak to her. She lived life in the shadows of the school, watching from outside the classrooms. Watching music lessons were her favourite. Ms Beale was the music teacher, who was determined to find out more about the mysterious janitor who liked her music.
1. Chapter 1

**The Janitor and the Music Teacher**

Beca Mitchell put the mop back into the bucket with a sigh. She'd finished this corridor, _finally_ , although she had taken a little longer than usual. Miss Beale was teaching a music class in the classroom closest to where she was standing, and the melody was simply uplifting, filling every crevice of the corridor as well as the classroom.

Beca loved music.

She loved the tunes, the backing, the melodies and the lyrics. Everything. She loved instruments, too. The sleek look of the violin, a shining silver flute. Her favourite, however, was the piano. The melodies the piano could play was what kept Beca going, most nights. Beca admired anyone who could press down on the ivory keys, with just the right tempo to keep up with, and make music.

Like Miss Beale.

Beca thought Miss Beale of some form of royalty amongst the other teachers. She admired how many instruments the woman could play, her bright blue eyes, even her red hair was perfect. She was perfect. The perfect teacher. She was nice to every student, whether they liked her or they hated her, and she could play almost anything she was given. She had a talent that Beca only in her wildest dreams could she wish to possess. The talent of music.

Sometimes, like today, Beca stood outside her classroom and just watched. She watched and she listened and she admired. Sometimes Miss Beale caught her, too. And, of course, Miss Beale smiled sweetly, and Beca would redden and look down at her cleaning. So far, she has learnt that anything that sounded happy in music was in major key and anything that sounded sad was in minor key. She has been especially proud of herself when she listened to a piece of music and could tell it was in major key, even before the students had put their hands up.

But, as per usual, Beca was fast to leave when the bell went, always afraid that Miss Beale would shout at her for watching the lesson without permission.

A few days later, and after Beca had accidentally been caught moving about slightly to the music, Miss Beale actually _walked over to the door_.

"Shit!" Beca exclaimed, rushing to pick up a rag to make it seem that she was actually doing her job.

Miss Beale watched her amusedly, a smirk on her face, as the shorter brunette almost knocked over her bucket of water in her haste to clean ANYTHING.

"You're Beca, right? Beca the janitor." Miss Beale asked her, and Beca stiffened, too scared to look up.

"Y-Yes Ma'am."

Beca glanced upwards at the redhead, who's grin was so wide that it made Beca slightly at ease.

"Do you wanna come in?"

Oh. Well, that made sense. Miss Beale just wanted her to clean the classroom. "Sorry, Ma'am, I'm only allowed to clean classrooms when no students are in there,"

"Not for that reason! I'm not leaving here until you come in, so..."

Beca looked down again, knowing she had been intruding and watching for far too long now. "Uh, no, Ma'am, my job..."

Miss Beale laughed, and _god_ , her laugh was one of the nicest melodies the brunette had ever heard. "I know you don't need to clean anything until after lunch, Beca. You're done for the morning, right?"

Beca was not about to lie to a teacher like Miss Beale. "Yes, Ma'am."

"So - come in, you can watch at the back if you feel more comfortable."

Beca bit her lip. "Th-Thank you, Ma'am. That's really kind of you."

"Of course," Miss Beale chirped, opening the door wider and letting Beca quietly slip in.

The brunette sat down on the floor in the very back corner of the room, barely believing what was happening. She was being allowed to actually sit through a music lesson, and Miss Beale had actually spoken to her. It was almost like being in school again. But this time, everyone wasn't laughing at her when she got the answer wrong. Beca smiled happily as she watched Miss Beale play a piece of music on the piano whilst a student accompanied her with their violin.

When the lesson was over, Beca stayed in her corner, half hoping Miss Beale would forget about her and she could slip out.

"Beca?" Miss Beale called, and Beca shot up with wide eyes.

"Y-Yes, Ma'am?"

Miss Beale chuckled. "It's cute that you call me ma'am, but Chloe is fine."

"Chloe." Beca tried out, the name rolling off her tongue with ease. "I like your name." She smiled. Beca looked down shyly. "H-how do you spell it?"

Miss Beale gave her a slightly confused, slightly scrutinising look, but replied happily and confidently. "C-H-L-O-E."

Beca recognised the sound of four of five letters.

"You can come closer, I don't bite," Chloe chuckled. "Did you enjoy the lesson?"

Beca's eyes seemed to light up at the question, and she treaded carefully in her used converse.

"Yes, Ma-Chloe. It was...really good." Beca replied lamely, not knowing what else to say without sounding like a total freak.

Chloe smiled brightly. "Good! Do you like music?"

"Yes. I love it."

Chloe tilted her head and smiled even brighter. "Can you play?"

Beca looked down and her shoulders deflated slightly. "No. I don't know how."

"Oh..." Chloe's smile slipped from her face and she looked sad for a second, before smiling again. "I can teach you!"

"Really?" Beca asked quietly, barely believing why she was hearing. She could feel the joy rising in her and the lump in her throats beginning to form.

"Of course!" Chloe grinned. "How about today after school?"

Chloe could see that Beca looked like she was about to cry and she stepped closer, suddenly producing a tissue and putting her hand on Beca's back. Beca sniffled loudly and let a watery smile grace her features.

"Th-Thank you, Chloe. That means a lot to me," the brunette bit her lip and caught Chloe's eyes to try and show her gratitude. She sniffled again but refused the tissues Chloe was offering her.

"Tonight at 4:30?"

"She probably won't even turn up." Beca muttered her thought out loud, but Chloe heard it.

The redhead looked concerned, then affronted, then sad. "What makes you think that?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, it's just...nobody else really talks to me, unless they have to." Beca's eyes were at her feet, looking reprimanded.

"Why's that? And I told you to call me Chloe."

Beca only shrugged. "I'm sorry, Chloe."

"That's okay," Chloe replied easily. "So, today at 4:30."

"Sounds good."

"And what instrument do you wanna learn?"

 _All of them_ , Beca thought. "I like the sound of the piano."

"Piano it is!"

Chloe found the janitor slightly odd, but intriguing. It was almost like talking to a little kid, or one of her students. Beca seemed to think she was constantly crossing the line, almost like talking to people - as a whole - was new to her. But Chloe was determined to show the brunette that she wasn't going to bail on her, Beca already seemed incredibly vulnerable as it is. She looked up at the clock and saw it was 4:35, and she sighed, thinking Beca really wasn't going to show up. She looked out to the door again and found Beca just waiting. Chloe frowned and got up, opening the door.

"You could've just knocked, you know,"

Beca jumped. "Sorry," she said quickly.

"It's fine, just next time come right in," Chloe smiled.

They both sat down at the piano, and Chloe took in the way Beca's eyes seemed to gloss over as she saw the keys, and her wrist twitched.

"You can touch it, Beca. Go ahead,"

Hesitantly, the small brunette pressed down on a key and grinned as it made a noise. She pressed down again on another, and another, before doing two at once. Chloe watched her, finding it amusing how Beca seemed just like a little kid trying a piano out for the first time. Soon, Beca was playing an awful combination of notes and smiling happily.

"You like the piano, huh?"

Beca looked at Chloe and nodded. "Yes. It's my favourite instrument. I've never been allowed to play one before."

Suddenly, Beca blushed and looked down at her lamp, as if she had given away too much information. Chloe gave her another scrutinising look. She wanted to find out why Beca had never been allowed to before. She wanted to find out why she seemed so timid all the time.

"Well, now's your chance. Do you wanna start by learning the notes?"

Beca nodded. "Yes, please."

Chloe produced a sheet of music that had a row of notes perfectly drawn on them.

"There are acronyms that we use to remember the notes. The most common ones are Every Good Boy Deserves Football, E, G, B, D, F, which are the lines in a stave. This is the stave," Chloe pointed to the five lines on the row. "And FACE. F, A, C, E. those are the spaces in between the lines. Are you with me so far?"

Not really

Beca nodded.

"Great! So I'm gonna tell you what each note is and I want you to write it underneath, okay?"

She was given a pen. Beca's heart sped up. This was it. Chloe was gonna find her weird now and kick her out.

"Okay, so, A,"

Beca startled. She knew a. A was in her name. Beca wrote

 **a**

In childlike writing.

Chloe furrowed her eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

"B,"

Beca refrained the urge to smile. That was in her name as well.

 **B**

"C,"

 **c**

This was easy, Beca thought. She knew all the letters already.

"D."

Beca stiffened, panicking. She put the pen to the paper, but couldn't write anything down. She didn't know how to write it or even what it looked like. She looked down and her eyebrows furrowed deeply in worry.

"Beca? The letter d,"

Chloe watched in concern as Beca's eyes darted around. The redhead sighed internally. She thought she knew what was going on.

Deciding to test her theory, Chloe got up and wrote the word lace on the whiteboard.

"What does this say?" She asked kindly.

Beca's eyes widened. All of those letters were in her name, so she sounded them out how they were said in her name.

"Lllllaakeh." She said hesitantly, and by the look on Chloe's face, it wasn't right.

"Lace, Beca. It says lace."

Beca bowed her head in embarrassment, trying not to cry. Chloe sat down next to her, moving to place a hand on Beca's back, but the brunette flinched violently, so Chloe was fast to place her hand back on her lap again.

"Beca..." Chloe said softly. "Do you know how to read?"

Beca went incredibly red, and her eyes gathered with tears. She was jittery for a short moment, before jumping up and making to leave the room.

"Beca? Please-"

"I shouldn't have- I'm sorry, I..." she ran out before Chloe could do anything.

"Wait." Chloe sighed, wincing as the door slammed shut.

She hadn't meant to insult Beca. Or make her upset. Chloe wasn't even sure what had happened. One minute they had been comfortably talking and Chloe had been showing her the keys, but the next Chloe asked something personal, TOO personal, and Beca fled. Maybe Beca really didn't know how to read, and was extremely self-conscious of it. Chloe would have to find out tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Janitor and the Music Teacher**

 **Chapter 2**

Chloe had a song stuck in her head.

Beca hadn't been back in her classroom in a week, the only times she was in there was to clean it, and that was whenever Chloe wasn't in there.

"Tomorrow," she sang softly, staring down at her marking dejectedly as she ticked and crossed the various answers her eighth graders had written. "Tomorrow never comes…"

Beca was meant to have come back tomorrow, or Chloe was meant to have seen her the next day and apologised.

But tomorrow never came for Chloe, and it was beginning to irk her, make her restless. She knew she shouldn't be nosy – her mother had told her that curiosity kills the cat more times than she could _count_ – but she couldn't help it. It was as if Beca was a puzzle. A puzzle where all the outside pieces were connected to make a border, but the other pieces were nowhere to be found. Chloe wanted to find the pieces. She wanted to know things. See the bigger picture, know why Beca couldn't read, see why she was so timid. Beca had been _beyond_ excited when she agreed to learning the piano, and all it took was one little revelation for her to run. Considering how excited Beca had been in the first place, surely, she would have come back?

And Chloe missed her.

She missed being able to look out of her window and notice the small brunette bobbing her head to the music as she wiped down a doorframe, or the smile Beca had when she would hear something she recognised. She missed being able to look up from whatever she was doing in her classroom and meet Beca's eyes for a split second, before the janitor would blush and quickly turn away and continue working.

But the good thing was, Chloe had a plan.

It was an easy plan.

One she should be able to successfully manage.

In the past few days, Chloe had had to stay late at school to finish some report cards, far later than most teachers would be staying. It would be the right time for a Janitor to clean the school, or give it a once over before locking it up for the night. Considering Beca didn't once walk past her room, and she wasn't anywhere to be seen the five or so times Chloe walked around the school either, it must be that Beca only ever cleaned her classroom in the mornings. Chloe got to school at 8am, and didn't get to her classroom before 8:10am, at least. School opened at 7:45, but Beca probably came earlier, and the music teacher knew some other teachers came in earlier than that, so it was probable that Beca made sure to clean her room earlier in order to avoid Chloe. That thought was one that upset the redhead, knowing she'd caused the already easily frightened girl to lack even more confidence in even seeing her.  
So, all Chloe needed to do was get to school earlier.

And her plan worked.

It worked _perfectly_.

The next morning, Chloe was up early, eating pancakes early, leaving her house early, parking at school early, and getting her tea from the common room early. It was 7:30am. She knew that, as her room was on the other side of the school to the Janitor closet, Beca wouldn't have gotten to her room yet, and if she had started earlier than Chloe thought she would, then she would be cleaning it right now.

And she was absolutely right.

When Chloe got to her classroom, she saw Beca inside, wiping down Chloe's whiteboard as her eyes drifted around the room, scanning instrument to instrument. Chloe grinned in triumph, knowing this was her time. She walked in and closed the door behind her, making the brunette jump out of her skin.

"Sorry!" She whirled round, eyes wide as she caught sight of Chloe, smiling at her. "I'm sorry, M-Ma'am, I was just-"

"Doing your job," Chloe supplied. "No need to apologise. And I'm just here to do mine."

Beca looked down and nodded "Yes, Ma'am." She whispered, speeding up with her cleaning.

"So," Chloe began. "You didn't come back to learn anymore,"

Beca stiffened. She didn't look up, "No, Ma'am,"

"My name is Chloe, you can call me Chloe," Chloe reminded her softly. She walked closer to Beca.

"Sorry…"

"If anyone should be saying sorry, it's me." Chloe said.

Beca looked back at her for a second, stormy blue eyes meeting a warm, much lighter blue. Beca's eyes were wide, as usual, and she quickly turned around and dropped her rag back into a bucket of solution, picking it up.

"Last week…I didn't mean to upset you, and I was wondering-"

Beca ducked her head and made to leave. "It's fine,"

Seeing the janitor was making no attempt to talk to her, Chloe impulsively dropped her mug of tea, watching it shatter, and the liquid spill out onto the wooden floor.

"Oops!" Chloe said innocently.

Beca stopped and looked at the broken mug. She sighed softly, knowing exactly why Chloe dropped it. With pink cheeks, Beca walked over, now brandishing a broom and dustpan from her cart, and began to sweep. Chloe crouched down, too, just so she could talk to the janitor easily, and know Beca was listening.

"Beca, if you want to, I can still teach you to play. Just because you…have difficulties learning…"

Beca zoned out at that.

Difficulties.

She had _difficulties._

She knew Chloe meant no harm, she knew the teacher was just trying to help. But it felt _alienating_. Beca knew she couldn't read, she knew she couldn't write, and she knew everyone around her could. It didn't exactly make her feel good about herself. Not to mention the amount of times she'd been told she was stupid, too stupid to do anything more than be a janitor. Too stupid to learn music the proper way. And now it felt like Chloe was telling her the same thing, just in a kinder way.

"All we have to do is learn by just looking, by sound. Reading the music isn't a must. I want to teach you, I can tell you'll be really good at it. And I want to give you the opportunity, because for whatever reason you weren't allowed to before. Do you wanna give it a go?" Chloe asked her kindly.

Beca bit the inside of her cheek and scrubbed the floor harder.

"Do you know how to ride a bike?" Chloe decided to take a different approach.

Beca stopped scrubbing.

"Y-Yes." She said cautiously.

"I don't." Chloe sighed. "I've always wanted to, but I just couldn't. All it takes is the right teacher, but I never found the right one. It was frustrating, watching the rest of my friends in middle school go ride their bikes together and know that I couldn't join them. How about you teach me how to ride a bike, and I teach you how to play the piano?"

Beca looked up at her, her eyes no longer scared and anxious, but intrigued with curiosity. "You want _me_ to teach you?"

"Yeah," Chloe smiled.

Beca shook her head, although her stomach was doing flips at the offer. "I'm not a good teacher, Miss. Unlike you…"

"I'm willing to learn from you if you're willing to learn from me," Chloe said brightly.

Beca was captivated.

Her eyes.

Were so _blue_.

And they were twinkling, they were bright and happy; the complete opposite of her own.

"Okay." Beca agreed, giving the teacher a soft smile.

Chloe seemed to brighten up even further. "Really?"

"Yes. Thank you, Chloe. Thank you, um, very much."

Chloe resisted the urge to do something weird, like squeal, or shout yay and jump up and down. She grinned at the janitor.

"How about we continue with your piano tonight?"

"Sure." Beca nodded.

For once, Beca seemed relaxed. She wasn't cowering, and her eyes weren't as wide as saucers as they usually were. She was even smiling.

"It's a date," Chloe bumped shoulders with Beca, who suddenly reeled back in surprise.

"A d-date?" She squeaked, her face contorting back to how it usually was.

Chloe's eyes grew wide. "No, no it's just an expression. Not an actual _date_ , sorry."

"Right." Beca nodded jerkily, getting up and putting her sponge back into a bucket. She paused and fidgeted for a second, keeping her eyes on her used converse. "Um, can I go now, please?"

Chloe furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head. There really was more than what meets the eye with Beca, there had to be deeper meanings behind her actions. Chloe didn't know any adults who asked if they could leave a conversation. She was definitely a puzzle, a puzzle that the redhead was determined to complete. She smiled, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Of course you can, Beca. I'll see you later."

Beca thanked her, stalled for a moment, before looking up at her with wide eyes. She started to say something, but only stuttered and shook her head, shuffling off. Beca halted as she reached to open the door, and looked back at Chloe with reddened cheeks.

"Um…please don't tell anyone about my…me not being able to…"

"Oh!" Chloe said, nodding instantly. She sent Beca a grin and a wink. "Don't worry, I wouldn't without your permission. And you can go back to your usual schedule. You know, cleaning outside my room before lunch. You can even come in, too. I told you before, I don't bite, "

"Thank you." Beca said earnestly. "You're really nice, Chloe."

Chloe stifled a giggle, raising an eyebrow. She couldn't help the small giggle that escaped her when Beca blushed even further and was fast to leave her classroom.

Mission accomplished.

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter too, I hope it lived up to expectations. I did so many rewrites and I still don't know if this is good enough but I knew I needed to update so...**

 **Considering Beca is the way she is, there's going to be a reason as to why she's like this. I have a few ideas explaining her behaviour, but if you guys have any thoughts or suspicions or queries or possibilities feel free to message me about them...**

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: **Tattysecondhandbook**

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 **Thank you for the support guys!**

Lasleonas007: **That's a really good idea, thank you!**

Guest: **Thank you very much!**

UnfamiliarSky: **I love you dude, you've been like the person I think of like I have to upload this for you and I gotta finish it gotta get it done so thank you and I hoped you liked this chapter, hopefully it won't take nearly as long to upload the next one!**

AcaTitanium94: **Yes, sir!**

cakedinmud: **I hope this only furthered your intrigue...**

Tomboyishfangirl: **Do you think I maintained the goodness? Thank you!**

Guest: **It won't be a oneshot, and eventually we will know all about Beca's backstory. Thank you for reviewing!**

tfatf42: **Thank you so much for reading it! I hope you like this one too...**

Petitevilleprod: **Thank you dude! I hope you liked this one agh I'm scared everyone is gonna hate it!**


	3. Chapter 3

Beca took a deep breath, trying to slow her heart rate down. She had been pacing nervously around the corner from Chloe's room for three minutes now. She wasn't sure how this was going to go, now that Chloe knew about her "difficulties". How was Chloe planning to teach her? She seemed enthusiastic to, but would she be able to? Nobody had ever been able to teach her before, so what made Chloe different? To be perfectly honest, Beca was only making herself more anxious than she needed to be.

She took another deep breath.

 _Damnit, Mitchell, you can't back out now._

 _Again._

Right. She needed to get a grip. Because she was now at least a minute late. Probably.

Beca wasn't too sure.

She took another deep breath.

It was time, whether she liked it or not.

With a set face, Beca practically marched towards the classroom and knocked three times. Chloe looked up from where she was sitting patiently at her piano with a large, toothy grin settling on her face. She squeaked in excitement and leapt up to open the door.

"You came!" Chloe said happily, wrapping her arms around Beca in a hug without much thought to how Beca usually reacted when she touched her.

Beca stiffened in her arms. She wasn't used to hugs, it wasn't often that she was given a hug, and it was even less often that she gave any. But, somehow, this felt right to her. So, she slowly wrapped her own arms around Chloe's midsection and held on lightly.

"I told you I would." Beca replied quietly, subtly trying to squirm out of Chloe's arms – the hug had gotten too much after only two seconds.

Chloe let go of her and sent her a beaming smile, taking her sleeve and pulling her towards the piano. They sat down together on the stool just like they had the week beforehand.

Chloe cleared her throat slightly. "So, I thought instead of trying to learn the notes by what they look like on paper, we can learn it by what they sound like. We're basically just going to go up and down the keys, and say or sing the notes as we go. I've also put the colours of the rainbow in correspondence to the notes, so red equals A, orange is B, yellow is C, green is D, blue is E, indigo is F and violet is G." Chlo explained happily, eagerly pointing to the different coloured stickers on the white keys.

Beca smiled unsurely, but she was happy that Chloe made the effort to do something different for her to understand. "Thank you."

"Sure! So, let's just go up the scale to get you used to what each sound like, and eventually you'll be able to recognise the note by its sound as well as by its colour,"

Chloe couldn't help but smile, bright-eyed, as she watched Beca get reacquainted it the piano. It was so…precious. So pure. Like watching a toddler slowly learn something new, and then once they know it, try their best to show it off with pride. Or like watching a puppy learn to run. Beca had – for once – let down her defences, and was slowly and surely moving from unsteady shyness to scintillating excitement. She was pressing the keys more frequently, mouthing or whispering the notes for most of them, her brows very slightly furrowed as she did her best to remember them as she went along, and the growing smile on her face said it all. Chloe was so, _so_ happy that she'd given Beca the chance to finally be able to do what she wanted and obviously loved to do. And as much as she wanted to outright ask her why it was Beca hadn't ever been given this chance before, she knew that Beca wasn't the type of person to share anything. She knew she had to at least build a stronger wall of trust and friendship before opening that window to the janitor's past.

Hang on. Stronger?

Did Beca trust her already? Were they friends? Acquaintances? Or just simply co-workers helping each other out?

Did Chloe think of Beca as a friend?

Well, she wanted to.

But she barely knew anything about the girl as it was, apart from the fact that she was unusually timid and shy, and couldn't read or write. So, she couldn't really call Beca a friend, could she? Especially if the feeling wasn't mutual.

"A," Chloe said, watching as Beca started, before quickly pressing down on the right key.

"F,"

"D,"

"B,"

"G,"

"C,"

"E,"

The redhead said the keys in a random order, and Beca pressed on each key correctly.

Chloe gasped and applauded proudly. "Great, Beca, you're remembering them,"

"The colours do help." Beca admitted, not taking her hands off the piano.

"Okay. How about we play something?"

Beca's eyes grew, but for once, it wasn't out of anxiety or fear. "Really?

"Yep! Okay, so instead of making you memorise the first song you ever play, I've set up sheet music, but instead of the notes there're the colours of the notes where they would be on the stave. Do you understand?"

Beca smiled. She really couldn't believe how much trouble Chloe had gone to. She didn't have to do any of this.

"Yes."

"Okay! So try and play it, and we'll see if you can work out which song it is, too." Chloe nudged her softly with a happy grin, placing the sheet music on the stand.

Beca's eyebrows furrowed as she did her best to focus on the colours against the lines. But the lines were overlapping and almost jumping off the page at her. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, but then the lines were even more all over the place. Beca flushed a light pink and bit her lip, fiddling with her fingers.

"I…" she started, looking at the paper harder. It started to make her feel dizzy, so she looked away and blinked. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, what's up?" Chloe asked her kindly, but with slight concern, having just watched Beca's struggle play out.

"N-Nothing," Beca said hesitantly, and Chloe could literally see Beca's conscious building a brick wall between them as she shrunk down a little further into the stool.

"Doesn't look like nothing. What's up?" Chloe tried again, purposefully keeping her tone light and safe.

Beca seemed to hesitate again, wringing her hands together. "Y-you're not gonna…tell me off…are you?"

Chloe frowned, looking seriously at the janitor. It upset her that that was the first thing that went to Beca's mind. "Of course not!"

"It's the…the lines." Beca squinted.

"What about them?"

Beca shook her head slightly, suddenly becoming shy. "It's all…together. I don't know. I'm probably just tired. Sorry." She looked away and her body seemed to curl up ever so slightly, more so than before.

Meeting the girl's eyes, Chloe furrowed her eyebrows. "No, no, this is important. Like, are they all overlapping each other? Are they going fuzzy?"

"Yeah. Both." Beca sighed.

Chloe was stuck at what to say.

"It's okay," she said eventually. "Loads of people get that."

"I'm sorry." Beca whispered, bowing her head. "Can I use the b-bathroom, please?"

"Sure, Beca," Chloe said gently, smiling softly at her, although she was sure the brunette could see the gears turning in her head as she thought about what had just happened.

Beca got up and shuffled out with her head still bowed down low. Chloe puffed out a little sigh, and made little popping sounds as she thought of what to do next. Should she try and deal with it herself? Or try and get Beca to agree to a test? Bearing in mind she didn't want to push the brunette out of her comfort zone. She pondered back and forth with herself for about five minutes, before she noticed Beca still wasn't back. Hoping the brunette hadn't ran away again, Chloe was fast to get up and go to the bathroom to see if she was alright.

Just as the music teacher was about to open the door, she heard a little thud, followed by a small sob. Chloe stopped dead in her tracks, pouting as she put her head to the door to listen.

"Why are you so stupid _all the time_?" she heard Beca say through another sob of frustration.

Chloe's heart dropped. Beca wasn't stupid, at all. The redhead could see that from the get go. She was bright. Very bright. All she needed was someone to help her switch the bulb on. To be honest with herself, Chloe doubted Beca really wanted to continue that day, so she impulsively walked into the bathroom.

"Beca?" She called.

The brunette was a fast-thinker, and she began to cough, as if she was choking, so her voice would have sounded raspy and broken. Chloe smiled softly. Yes, Beca was definitely bright.

"Y-Yeah?" she said, coughing again. "S-Sorry…I-I like, choked on not-nothing!"

Chloe made sure to play along, and giggled. "You okay?"

"Fine!" Beca said, slightly over-enthusiastically, but Chloe didn't dwell on it.

"Sorry to have to cut it a little short, but I totally spaced! I made plans to meet with my friend tonight, and I have just about enough time to go home, change, and get to the diner we're meeting at. But I think we really made some progress today, so it's not like a complete flop of a lesson, right?"

"Right," Beca said.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, sure, tomorrow,"

"Kay, thanks for letting me off the hook! Bye, Beca, have a good night!"

"Yeah – I mean, you too,"

Chloe began to make her way out of the bathroom, but suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, wait, are you nearly done?"

"Yes…" Beca said, sounding slightly cautious as she unlocked the door and stepped out, washing her hands twice.

"Instead of having to go looking around school for each other, I was wondering if you had a phone? Then I could just text or call you and it would be so much easier." The redhead smiled hopefully at the smaller girl, and Beca looked away for a second, before nodding.

"I have a phone," she reached into her pocket and pulled out an iPhone 7.

"Oh wow, really?" Chloe asked before she could stop herself. "Sorry, that sounded rude. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but how do you use it? You know, cause…"

"Speech assist. And Siri," Beca chuckled, seemingly relaxed and even a little happy that Chloe seemed so awestruck and interested.

"How does it work?"

Beca smiled brightly, and Chloe felt giddy that she was the one who had caused it, and tapped her home button.

"Hi, Beca," came a virtual voice.

"Oh my god! That's so cool! So, does it do everything for you so you never have to type or read anything?" Chloe's eyes widened and she almost squealed in excitement and surprise.

"Pretty much. I mean, I'm pretty sure I use it more for its functions as a phone than most people, but it does what I need it to."

"Can you show me?" Chloe asked, still in amazement.

"Can you put in your number?" Beca asked her, unlocking the phone with her thumb print and handing it to Chloe.

Chloe swiped across looking for the contact app, and saw that Beca was right – she didn't really have any other apps apart from the apps given to every phone. The redhead smiled softly as she saw that Beca's background was a red panda in snow. She was fast to type in her number and label the contact "Chloe Beale", before handing Beca back her phone.

Beca held down her home button before speaking clearly. "Text Chloe Beale."

"What would you like to say?" the virtual voice asked.

"Go home before you're late, thanks for the lesson, Beca."

A moment later, a ding came from Chloe's phone, and she looked at it in excitement as it lit up with a text from an unknown number. "That's so cool!"

Beca blushed softly and shrugged – it was the first time anyone had taken such an interest in her. "I guess…"

"It is _really cool_ , Beca." Chloe told her, almost fiercely. "Anyways, thanks for showing me! I've got to run, have a good night,"

"Have fun with your friend." Beca replied calmly.

Chloe sent her a smile, before leaving the bathroom. Beca leant back on the counter. She was calm. She was so, so calm. After having cried less than five minutes ago. She couldn't figure out how Chloe managed to have that effect on her, how she managed to get her so calm so quickly. Furthermore, she was _happy._ Happy Chloe continued to take interest in her despite the many obvious mistakes she kept making, mistakes only _she_ would be dumb enough to make. Nothing other than music had ever made her happy before.

It was definitely a change.

A good change.

 **Once again, I'm unsure beyond unsureness about how this chapter was. Good, bad, ugly, vague, too much? Was it a bit of a let down? I'll totally rewrite it if it was…**

 **Also, how would you guys feel if I added in more characters as teachers and/or friends from pitch perfect? We can totally keep it just Beca and Chloe but I feel like a tiny bit of variety in characters is needed hahaha**

 **Anyways, I want to thank all of you who have reviewed or favourited or liked or reblogged or WHATEVER on the last chapter in the past few months, thank you for being so consistently supportive and motivating! And I'm sorry I can't give you updates once a week. My life is getting busier and busier by the minute, but I'm trying my best to give you guys the most perfect chapters you deserve! Thank you for believing in me :) It really does make a difference when I get such amazing feedback!**

UnfamiliarSky: **Aw, you're welcome dude! Thank you so so much, you have no idea how happy that makes me! I'm sorry for the long wait and I'm legit praying that it was worth the wait, and that you enjoy it! Haha yeah, life works in mysteriously conspiring ways, but tattysecondhandbook: 1, Life:0! I'm slowly and surely ploughing my way through the fic! I know I just said this but I really hope you like this chapter!**

bechloeorbhloe: **Awww thank you so much! Also I'm loving the username ;) And I can't wait to write that part too! Next chapter ;)**

totisampaio: **Thank god you're reviewing! Thank you so much! And woooo I can't wait to eventually tell you ahaaha!**

Lasleonas007: **I haven't seen augustus rush, but I'll be sure to check it out! Hahaha street life, living life on the edgeee! Sorry for the long wait, but I hope you enjoy it!**

emoxional: **Aww thank you very much! I'm anxious for you to find out tbh, and maybe! Maybe... ;) Oh wow it's not your first language! Your grammar and spelling was perfect!**

Guest: **Thank you! I hope you really like this chapter too!**

until its gone: **Thank you so so so much! I've never had people say they're intrigued so that meant a lot! Hope it's still intriguing for you dude!**

Guest: **Aw that means a lot, thank you! I hope this was as incredible for you as the last! Thanks for the review :)**

NotCreativeAtAll: **Ooh, thank you very much! I really hope I don't muck it up hahaha!**

AnnaAppreciation47: **Thank you! I honestly am so excited to reveal more about her too!**

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Kasia143: **Thank you so much! Hope you can call this soon haha...hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Tomboyishfangirl: **Thank you thank you thank you! Thanks for the lovely review, too!**

 **You guys make me SO happy.**

 **Also: THE NEW TRAILER! AHHHH!**

 **Also also: Was this a bit short? I'm worried it was slightly too short...**

 **AHH so many worries!**


	4. Chapter 4

**(Unknown Number): Hey**

Chloe frowned, propping herself up on her elbow as she checked her phone. It was interrupting her marathon of _How To Get Away With Murder,_ so she felt inclined to check it. Seeing an unknown number, she was about to put it down before contemplating; she scrolled up and saw the number had sent her something before, ad she realised who it was. Quickly changing the contact to Beca, she smiled softly. She had been waiting for Beca to text her, not wanting to pressurise the girl any further, but it had been a day since their lesson and Beca seemed to be feeling up to a conversation.

Chloe : Hey Beca 🙋 ️

 **Beca : is that an emoji of someone waving?**

Chloe: yes 😃

 **Beca : hahaha**

 **Beca: do you use emojis at the end of everything you send?**

Chloe: yes😁

 **Beca: of course you do, I don't know why I would expect any less.**

 **Beca: Wait that sounded rude I swear it wasn't meant to be**

Chloe: no it didn't dw

Chloe: don't worry*

Chloe: I wouldn't expect anything less either 😜👻 ️

 **Beca: are you bummed because they don't have a red headed emoji?**

Chloe: YES! But theyre gonna release one soon so it's okay! Finally! 🎉🎊

 **Beca: hahaha it's about time.**

 **Beca: um you're probably wondering why I texted**

 **Beca: do you still wanna trust me with teaching you?**

Chloe: omg yes yes yes yes 😁🚲

Chloe had to stop herself from squealing, even though she was alone in her apartment. She knew Beca would be a good teacher and she was excited to finally learn how to ride.

 **Beca: oh she said yes**

 **Beca: oh crap that wasn't meant to send**

 **Beca: sometimes voice assist is a pain**

 **Beca: sorry**

Chloe: 😂😂 I know you're flustered just by reading your messages and you've gone red

 **Beca: what does that mean?**

Chloe's heart exploded. She was happy that Beca asked her, she felt that if this was two weeks ago Beca would have just agreed, too anxious to ask.

Chloe: it's like you've just lost your cool.😳

 **Beca: oh**

 **Beca: Okay**

 **Beca: so do you maybe wanna have your first riding lesson on Sunday morning?**

 **Beca: or do you have like church or something**

 **Beca: you seem like you would.**

Chloe: why do I seem like that?

 **Beca: you're just...very very nice. Like a church goer.**

Chloe: hahaha well I don't have church. I stopped going when I was sixteen. I confessed what I thought was a sin at the time to the priest and instead of just praying for me or whatever he told me I was going to hell

 **Beca: and that is the exact reason why I don't go. They're so fake. They say they accept everyone but they didn't accept me when I couldn't read from the bible in a holy communion class.**

Chloe: that's horrible ️😔 😡

 **Beca: that's a lot of emojis, easy there Chloe**

Chloe: hahaha 😂

 **Beca: so if you don't have church, do you want to come then?**

Chloe: I'll be there, where and what time ️🕑

 **Beca: the park near the bread shop that sells like cookies and sausage rolls. I don't know what it's called. Either of them.**

Chloe: the park is called Georgie park and the shop is the bakery.🌲

 **Beca: oh okay**

 **Beca: what time...**

 **Beca: I don't know**

 **Beca: im sorry**

Chloe sighed and cursed herself for being so thoughtless; she definitely shouldn't have asked. Beca knew she knew Beca couldn't know, so now she was afraid the janitor would think Chloe was mocking her.

Chloe: Don't be sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't think before I asked. 💕

 **Beca: it's okay my dad asks me on purpose all the time. You didn't mean to so it's okay**

Her dad asks her all the time? Maybe her dad was part of the problem. As much as Chloe wanted to find out more, she decided it would be better to drop the subject before she insulted or made Beca upset.

 **Beca: when my room gets light, Cause it means it's daytime**

Chloe: and you go to sleep when it gets dark🌙

 **Beca: sort of. Maybe a bit afterwards.**

Chloe: Okay, so how about I meet you at the park at ten. It's a few hours after the sun comes up, so I think you'll be able to get there in time. If you're not I'd be happy to wait. ️

 **Beca: yeah okay**

 **Beca: is ten near noon?**

Chloe: not really, noon is a couple hours later. Noon is lunch time. Ten is still around breakfast time. 🍳

 **Beca: oh.**

 **Beca: Okay. I'll see you at ten.**

Chloe: Okay then! See you on Sunday🙋 ️

Sunday rolled around faster than Chloe expected, and she soon found herself digging out her helmet, knee and elbow pads from her closet. She was excited – more than excited. She had dusted off her bike the day before. Her parents had given it to her for Christmas a few years ago, obviously in the hopes that their daughter would buck up and learn to ride a bike. Chloe found it amusing (and rather sad) that it was only now she was learning…two decades after she should have.

Even so, she was excited. And ready.

If Beca could learn how to play piano past her illiteracy, then she could learn to ride a bike.

Chloe bit her cheek to try and hid her wide grin, not wanting to look like the Cheshire Cat on drugs to anyone walking past her. Here the redhead was, struggling to keep her bike from falling on her as she walked, with her helmet, elbow and knee pads already on, and a bright smile on her face.

She looked like Kimmy Schmidt.

After fighting with her bike for fifteen minutes, the music teacher eventually reached the park, and immediately spotted Beca. The brunette looked a lot different from when she was in her janitor uniform – her hair was down, and Chloe saw now it went down to her mid-chest in soft waves. She wore black skinny jeans, a black tank top and a black leather jacket.

Clearly, she was a fan of dark clothing.

In the redhead's opinion, she was gorgeous.

She rolled her bike over to where the girl was standing with her own bike, and dropped it loudly onto the pavement with a crash. Probably not the best idea, considering Beca had been looking the complete opposite way.

The brunette let out a small squeak and jumped about two feet into the air. She whipped around, eyes as wide as ever, but relaxed once she saw Chloe.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Chloe giggled.

Beca gulped and let out a shaky breath. "R-Right. Hi, Miss."

"Beca," Chloe groaned. "I'm not your teacher right now, and even when I am your teacher, you still call me Chloe. Chloe."

"Sorry. Hi, Chloe," Beca tried again.

"Hi," Chlo said brightly.

"Hi," Beca breathed out, seemingly still trying to recover from her near heart attack. "What do you want me to teach?"

"Well, you're the teacher today, Beca. I'm in your classroom now, so you get to decide." Chloe grinned, winking at the smaller girl.

Beca bit her lip to hide her growing smile. She couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of herself – she had always wanted to be a teacher (maybe this was why she admired the redhead so much). The janitor blushed lightly.

"Okay," She said, taking a deep breath. "Uh, I wanna see like…you ride first? If that's okay. J-Just to see what you need to um, do."

Chloe smiled warmly when she saw Beca slipping back into her shell, the same one Chloe often found her in, and managed to indicate through a warm smile that Beca needn't slip back, that Chloe accepted and encouraged the fact that Beca was everything but experienced at teaching, and that that was perfectly okay.

"Sure," Chloe replied easily. "But I really, really can't do much more than sit on the seat."

"That's fine," Beca shrugged, and then mumbled something about not really minding as Chloe was more accomplished in all other aspects of life than she was.

The teacher resisted the urge to reply to Beca's quiet comment; she just hoped one day that Beca would stop putting herself down, Instead, Chloe smiled, picked her bike up from where she had unceremoniously dropped it on the ground, and mounted her seat.

"Beca, I'm gonna fall-"

"Just try," Beca smiled, now her turn to be the encouraging one.

"But I-"

"Chloe." Beca stopped her, surprising the redhead with the interruption. "Nobody has ever learnt anything without having to fail first. Trust me on that, and I've never even learnt anything."

Chloe sighed. Of course, now she felt foolish, ungrateful, in a way. She was a lot better off than Beca was with a lot of different things. She needed to do this.

"You're right,"

"Really?" Beca brightened up with excitement, and Chloe realised that the girl had probably barely ever been told she was right throughout her life.

"Yes, really," Chloe giggled. She sobered up almost immediately and took a deep shaky breath. She brought her right foot to the pedal, and began to push down.

"Wait!" Beca said suddenly.

"Jesus Christ!" Chloe jumped with a shriek, pressing hard against the breaks of her bike, even though she hadn't moved an inch. "Oh my god, Beca! Wait for what?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Beca chuckled as she realised that's exactly what Chloe had told her no more than five minutes ago. "I just thought you should probably do this on the grass. It'll be a bit harder to bike on, but it's softer to fall onto."

"Yeah…yeah, okay." Chloe said, getting off the bike and pushing it towards the grass, before getting back onto it.

"Okay…now go." Beca told her. "I won't stop you,"

Beca watched carefully, head cocked, as Chloe pressed down once more on the pedal. She actually rode for about five seconds, before toppling over onto her left side with a small _oof_. However, in that five seconds, there was a lot wrong. Her physique, the way she pushed down on the pedals was a little too forceful, and her arms and hands had been too shaky, making the handles go all over the place. She really _did_ try hard, though. Beca helped Chloe out from underneath her bike and squatted down to where the redhead was sitting on the grass with a pout.

"I told you I couldn't do much." Chloe muttered.

"It was great," The janitor assured her. "There was some things wrong…your body, pedalling, the handles."

"That's literally everything." Chloe huffed with a roll of her eyes.

" _But_ ," Beca continued. "I'm not working on any of that stuff yet. So you don't end up like…thinking too much. I think…just getting you to be steady and ride a straight line is what to do now. Uh…watch me,"

Chloe stayed seated as Beca mounted her own bike and rode slowly and carefully for about ten metres before stopping. The brunette dismounted her bike and turned around, her face donning a small half-smile; it looked almost as if she was looking for approval from Chloe – not that Chloe knew what approval she wanted.

"That's how it's gonna look in the end," Beca said.

"It looked really good, Beca," The redhead praised her, feeling her stomach do an uneasy – and somewhat disappointed – turn. She wanted to be able to do what Beca could do.

Beca sent her a genuine smile, before motioning for the redhead to get on her bike again. She watched as the musician pedalled hesitantly and slowly whilst Beca held on tightly to the back of her seat, stabilising the bike. Despite the added security, Chloe was still incredibly shaky as she rode.

"You need to relax!" Beca said clearly after the fifth time Chloe had gotten too shaky and fallen, even with Beca holding her seat. "You're too scared of falling over. You've already fallen, you're not gonna get hurt too bad, and you've got all the pads and stuff. Just ride and stop thinking about breaking something,"

Chloe sighed in defeat. "Beca, it's just really-"

"Hard, I know. You have to try," Beca said, more softly than before. "Do you want stabilisers?"

"No." Chloe pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't. I'm not a little kid."

"You sure about that?" Beca smirked jokingly, looking at Chloe's stance.

Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, Chloe let out a small giggle, uncrossing her arms. "Whatever. Let's go again,"

Chloe growled in frustration around an hour later. She still hadn't gotten anywhere with her riding, and she could feel multiple bruises forming around her body from where she'd fallen. She clenched her jaw as she rode off again, but she only fell once more.

"Argh!" exclaimed the girl, literally throwing the bike off her body.

"Okay, okay, just stop for a bit," Beca said, sitting down in front of Chloe. "You weren't gonna get it straight away. It takes loads of practice."

"It's so _annoying_!" Chloe crossed her arms. "You do it so _easily_ and it makes me feel incompetent."

"What does that mean?"

"It's when you don't have or can't show the skills to do something. You're incompetent of doing it."

"Welcome to my world," Beca shrugged. "And you do music so easily and it makes me feel incomtepent. You can read, and write, and spell more things than just your own name, and I'm just incomtepent of doing all that stuff. But…but I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna learn to ride a music and you're gonna learn to do a bike. Wait…I think I said that wrong…"

Chloe bit her lip to hide the soft smile that was sneaking up onto her face. That gave her an idea. Maybe she could help Beca without Beca realising she was helping her…maybe she could somehow test her without _actually_ testing her. With the right research, Chloe might just be able to figure out what went on in Beca's mind. She knew already that the janitor jumbled her words, and found it difficult to read when there were lines on the page. She could definitely find out a bit more.

"You mean, you're gonna learn to do music and I'm gonna learn to ride a bike," Chloe supplied.

"Yeah. And we can't learn it all in one lesson. So we shouldn't…beat ourselves up, just cause we can't do it." Beca finished with a proud smile on her face, seemingly for being able to give such wise words of wisdom.

Chloe met her eyes with a small smile. "Thank you,"

Beca's smile dropped and she looked clueless. "For what?"

"That made me feel better."

Beca's smile was the biggest Chloe had ever seen.

They spent another half hour at the park, and Chloe wasn't getting very far, or learning very much. Beca, on the other hand, was learning a lot. For example, who knew that when Chloe got increasingly frustrated, she became a sailor. The sailor's mouth the girl had was crazy – she was spouting swear words Beca had never even heard of before. To be honest, it was pretty entertaining to watch. Chloe often seemed like she couldn't hurt a fly and had a permanent smile etched onto her face, but put the music teacher on a bicycle and it's a whole other story. Eventually, though, Beca decided Chloe was probably going to end up throwing her bike into a dumpster if they didn't call it a day.

"You got better," Beca said promisingly.

"I didn't, but thanks." Chloe shrugged half-heartedly, staring at the ground as she rolled her bike off the grass and onto the path that would lead them back onto the main road.

They walked alongside each other in silence for a few moments. Now that Beca was done teaching – she still couldn't believe she was _teaching_ something to somebody else – she didn't have much else to say, and she didn't know how to begin a conversation.

"Hey, would you wanna get something to eat?" Chloe was the first to speak, which Beca was more than happy about.

However, the brunette took it as Chloe sending Beca away to eat. The janitor fumbled, felt her chest tightening a little, and nodded jerkily. "Oh…yeah, yeah, um, do you want me to come back or not?"

Chloe frowned in confusion, before her face morphed into a sweet smile. "No, I mean with me. Would you like to get something to eat with me?"

Beca visibly relaxed. "Oh. Oh, sure,"

"There's a café down the street?" Chloe nodded her head towards the left.

Beca blushed a light pink. "I…I don't know what the serve there,"

Chloe was about to suggest that she could tell Beca once they get there, but then she thought about it; maybe the smaller girl wouldn't like it if she had to be read the menu in front of other people, or maybe she didn't like change very much.

"How about McDonald's? They have pictures of their food. Do you go there much?"

"Sometimes," Beca said softly. She looked around the street, and noticed the logo of her favourite place to eat at. She couldn't exactly read it, but she'd memorised the colours and shapes. "Taco Bell! Can we go to Taco Bell?"

Chloe giggled as she watched the way Beca perked up with excitement. She looked like a child. "Sure,"

In the five minutes it had taken them to get there, order their food and sit, Beca had erupted into a story about how she felt like the first time she ever had Taco Bell, which was honestly just adorable. She only leased on the description once she got her taco, and sat happily eating it. Sitting there, eating tacos with the janitor, Chloe felt like this was the first time they had ever truly bonded. It wasn't about teaching each other anything, it was about talking and being comfortable with each other (the redhead was ecstatic that Beca seemed to be comfortable around her), and Chloe found that, when Beca wasn't focused on trying to do something for herself or for someone else, she was actually pretty funny. Witty, and sarcastic, and never missing a beat with her comments. The redhead couldn't help but wonder where Beca would have ended up had she been more literate than she was – she could be anything ranging from a doctor to a comedian, because she seemed smart whenever she talked, it was just writing the smart down in black and white that was the problem.

"Are you even listening to me?" Beca raised an eyebrow at the girl sitting across from her – Chloe had been staring at her for the past two minutes.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah, of course," Chloe nodded immediately.

"Yeah? What did I just say, then?"

"You said…Chloe, I think we're gonna be really fast friends. Oh, wait, no, that's what I was thinking," Chloe grinned and sent the brunette a wink.

Beca chuckled. "Smooth, Beale. Very smooth."

Chloe looked down at her taco, her grin triumphant. It looked like her and Beca were going to be more than co-workers after all.

Thanks for reading!

Replies to reviews...

AcaTitanium94: thank you so much!

Kasia143: haha, I'm sorry about that, I struggle to write quickly, I have to make sure everything's perfect! And even then it's not perfect...and haha, so am I to be honest, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Lasleonas007: yeah, I'm sorry about that, I hope this made up for the shortness of last chapter! And I agree, I think I'll let them bond a lot more before another character is introduced! Thanks for the review!

until it's gone: thank you thank you thank you! And so do I ;) I've actually never seen good will hunting, I had no idea about it until somebody (was it you?) mentioned it to me, and my English teacher did as well haha, so I really wanna watch it now!

destinedtobefree: aww, thank you so much! Honestly, I'm sure all be bawling by the time I eventually finish this fic, it's something really special to me and really close to my heart and it means the world that you love it so much too!

UnfamiliarSky: you are my G! And yeahhh, chloe def does have some sort of an idea and honestly I'm just as intrigued as you are to see what she does about it hahaha. You helped me so much earlier today with your comment on my tumblr (I still need to reply) thank you so much! aww, at least you have more of a reason not to be updating 24/7 than I do! I'm glad you're recovering! Awwwwww cheerleaders and fans oh my god!

Guest: AWWW BLESS YOUR SOUL, I made you cry! I'm sorry, but also not! I'm sure this relationship will go just the way you want it to!

guest: you're welcome, thanks for the review!

justbechloe: aww thank you so much! I'm happy you found it! And your English isn't bad at all!

Guest: you got more! Thanks for the review!

Hetwaszoietsals: I am continuing, all the way to the end (however long that will take)! Thanks heaps for the review!

squiddy11111: OH THANK YOU SO MUCH BLESS! you truly give me a whole lot of confidence, thank you!

jlk215: oh my goodness thank you, you don't know how much that means! And I can picture that too, I can't wait for it to become a reality!

Bechloe Targaryen: Thank you for your input, I think I'm gonna add more too! Haha I'll try my best to stop my worrying, thank you!

bagelfish88: thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

PitchFreakTrash: aww thank you! Haha, I love/live to make people laugh, honestly! HAHAHA YOU SOUND LIKE ME HAHA LEGIT ME BECHLOE IS COOOL YKNOW IM TOTALLY NOT FREAKING OUT AT EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION THEY HAVE! Have you seen the movie yet? I saw it, oh god I sobbed, it was everything. I did continue on, and you shall continue reading this...is it beautiful? Really? Aww...fanfic...

guest: haha, an iPhone 7 alright! I wanted to give her a popular expensive phone, I'm not sure why hahaha. I can't wait for you to find out! Thanks for the review!

Tomboyishfangirl: awww thank you very very much! I hope you like this chapter just as much as the rest!

OnceYouGoBecYouCantGoBack: Oh my god, thank you! You're beautiful for this review! Maybeeeee...

justbechloe: dude! You got your wish! And aghhhh thank you!

WOW you guys, all those reviews for lil ol' me! Thank you so much, my heart has just swollen three times'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Changes**

A typical day in the life for Beca was somewhat satisfactory. It was routinely, it was structured. A change in her day was rare. She liked to control what she could in her life, and considering reading or writing weren't exactly controllable variables for her, she did that by routine. Buying the same groceries, cooking the same meals, eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch. She walked or biked the same way to school, ate the same type of pop tart and/or cereal in the morning, and went the same way about cleaning the school every day.

Everything was the same and nothing ever changed, and that was just the way she liked it.

Until the day she got invited into Miss Beale's classroom; that's when everything started going topsy-turvy. She stayed an extra hour after school, she changed her cleaning routine (briefly), she left her house on a Sunday morning, she got to _play the piano_. It was all new to her. Beca used to think she didn't like change, she used to think that once she found something she didn't mind doing often, that was that and she would never need to do anything different. But she had been wrong – some changes were good changes. Miss Beale was clearly a good change. It almost felt like every day she encountered the music teacher, she was in for a change.

And Monday was no different.

She started the day as normal; up as soon as the light seeped through her window, eating her pop tart, biking to school. It was no surprise to Beca that the normality began to differ by the time she got to Chloe's classroom – she had to keep reminding herself that she'd been told to call the redhead _Chloe_ and not Miss Beale. She'd been taught her whole life about what happened whenever she didn't do something right, and although it didn't seem like Chloe would ever punish her, she knew not to risk it.

Just like the first time they had spoken, Chloe knew Beca was watching. She knew the janitor was finished and she knew the janitor was eagerly watching and listening. And yet, every time the redhead looked up, Beca was looking away, or idly wiping something down. Catching Beca staring was like a game. It was _nearly_ frustrating (because they had spent half the day together yesterday, couldn't Beca just look at her now?), but at the same time, Chloe found it endearing – Beca was being unintentionally adorable. Almost distracting, to be honest.

Not that Chloe minded.

After the fifth time Beca had averted her eyes, Chloe caught her, and grinned triumphantly as the brunette's eyes widened, before seeing that the musician was near laughing, and a small smile lifted her cheeks.

Realising that her freshmen class was going to have to get used to the janitor sitting in on their music lessons every day, Chloe stood up from her desk, still keeping eye contact with the small brunette standing outside.

"Guys," Chloe interrupted their work, and instantly the teenagers quietened down – they respected Chloe more than they respected most teachers. "Remember last week when the school Janitor Beca sat in on our lesson?"

A few nodded, but most of them said they hadn't noticed – Beca was very quiet, like a tiny mouse.

"Well, I'm thinking of making it a regular occurrence – I'm teaching her music and she loves it, so maybe this will benefit her a lot. Just be nice and considerate, she won't do much else than listen and applaud, okay?" She smiled at her students, and they could see Chloe was excited, so they ended up chuckling and nodding, shrugging.

Chloe walked over to the door, and opened it, leaning on the frame. "I'm putting you in my class,"

Instantly, Beca's smile dropped and she looked nervous. "Like…to perform? I don't know any mus-"

"No, to watch! Like you did the other day. You'll be just like a pupil,"

"I don't know, Chloe…" Beca looked down, wringing her hands together and biting her cheek. "High school wasn't the best time of my life…"

Chloe's eyes softened. "I promise this won't be like high school. They're really nice,"

Beca peered anxiously past Chloe's shoulder – making the redhead feel like she was trying to persuade a toddler to go to their first day of kindergarten – and saw the class. Some of them were watching the women, and smiled sweetly when Beca glanced at them, whilst others were working or talking amongst themselves, but Chloe was right; they all looked friendly enough.

"O-Okay," Beca agreed, with a small gulp.

The redhead squealed and almost wrapped Beca up in a hug, but decided against it, and instead just took her wrist and led her to the front of the classroom.

"This is Beca," she told her class, gesturing to the now blushing janitor.

"Hi, Beca!"

"Hey,"

"What's up?"

Numerous choruses of greeting came from the kids, and Beca smiled shyly. "Uh, hi."

"How about you sit here, Beca," Chloe led her over to an empty seat, away from any desk, but still close with the rest of the group.

Being able to watch the lesson more closely, and watch the how everyone works in detail, and knowing that nobody minded her being there, was eye-opening for Beca. It was amazing, and it didn't take long for her to feel pretty relaxed, like she was meant to be there, even though she wasn't a high schooler, even though she didn't know nearly as much as they did. She was in the lesson for much longer than she was the last time. She got to watch the kids compete for best composition, and when it came to a tie, all the kids looked to _her_ to cast her vote.

"Whose do you think was better? Mine or Kayla?"

Beca raised her eyebrows, a slight blush and smirk lighting her face. " _What?_ I'm just watching…"

"C'mon, Beca, you've gotta have a preference!"

"A what?" Beca asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"An opinion," Chloe said softly.

"Uh…I guess Kayla's cause it's in major key and a bit more like…you know, like, hard." Beca fumbled, blushing harder.

"A bit more complicated?" a boy asked.

"Yeah,"

"Beca! You know what major and minor key is?" Chloe asked, unable to hide her joyful surprise. Beca knew something about music, something Chloe hadn't even taught her. The redhead was more than proud.

"Yeah…" Beca said quietly. "Was I right? It was major key?"

"Yes, it was major. You were right." Chloe beamed at her, and Beca nodded, looking down to hide her own grin of pride.

The rest of the lesson flew by, and Beca decided to leave five minutes earlier, to put her cart away before lunch. She said a thank you to Chloe, and bye to the kids, feeling more comfortable around them after they'd made her feel so welcome, like she belonged. There weren't many times Beca could count in her life when she'd felt as if she truly belonged, and it meant a lot to her when she did. Beca was sitting on her usual back table in the cafeteria, away from the other members of staff, who she didn't know very well, and away from all the students, with her peanut butter and jelly sandwich ( _sure_ , most adults had more grown-up lunches, but PB+J was just what the brunette was used to), her grapes, her chocolate pop tart (strawberry for breakfast, chocolate for lunch), and her juice.

It didn't bother Beca that her lunch was similar to that of her lunch when she was in elementary school.

She'd only taken one bite out of her sandwich when she felt the table shift slightly, and saw someone putting their own lunch down. Beca looked up, stiff and startled – nobody ever ate with her. As soon as her sea blue orbs met crystal blue, she relaxed a little, but still looked questioningly at Chloe.

"Hi?"

"Hi!" The bubbly redhead replied happily, sitting on the bench opposite Beca.

Beca looked around slightly. "Did I…do something wrong?"

"No, of course not. I wanted to eat lunch with you," The teacher said, opening a box of sushi.

"O-Oh, really?" Beca smiled.

"Yeah, really. What're you eating?"

"Um…peanut butter and jelly." Beca said, looking embarrassed as she looked down at her seemingly useless sandwich, and then at Chloe's exquisite cuisine. "It's…babyish, I know."

"Aww!" Chloe smiled sweetly, feeling an immediate need to assure Beca. "No, it's great. I _love_ peanut butter and jelly."

Beca nodded, her own smile back on her face. "It's the best sandwich,"

"Is it your favourite food?" Chloe asked, almost teasingly as she picked up a piece of sushi.

"No!" Beca said immediately, seemingly appalled. " _No._ Taco Bell is my favourite. You know that from yesterday, _duh_ ,"

"Duh, silly me," giggled the redhead. She looked up when Beca didn't immediately respond, and saw the brunette was looking over her shoulder. Chloe followed her gaze to see her looking at one of the teacher tables. "What's up? Do you wanna sit over there instead?"

Beca seemed to jump very slightly. "Uh, no, I just…you _always_ sit there. Did you feel sorry for me? Is that why you sat here? Cause, I don't-"

"No, Beca. I really wanted to sit with you today. You're my friend too," Chloe said seriously. Then, it was the redhead's turn to be nervous. "We are friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah, of course," The janitor said, finishing one half of the sandwich and putting the crust back on her paper bag.

Chloe just about _died._ Beca didn't even eat the crusts – was she over 18, or was she 5? She was adorable, that's what she was. Tiny and innocent.

"You're like a tiny mouse," Chloe voiced her thought from earlier that day, chuckling as Beca looked up questionably.

"Me? I'm a mouse?"

"Yeah, you're _tiny_ ,"

"I'm not _tiny."_ Beca huffed immediately. "I'm just not as…big as some people."

"Whatever makes you happy," Chloe teased, earning an eye roll. "Anyway, you're tiny, and you're alert like a little mouse."

"Well I think you're a…a dog."

Chloe gasped playfully. "Are you calling me a _bitch?_ "

The redhead grinned as Beca let out a bubbly laugh.

"No! But you're like…friendly. And smart and like…you get excited. You're a dog. One that likes playing."

The conversation went smoothly from there, just like it had the day before at taco bell. Chloe could tell that she'd brightened Beca's day, and she found herself wanting to do that every day. The brunette had been sitting quietly in the corner at the start of lunch, and by the end as she cleaned the cafeteria, she couldn't get the smile of her face. As they chatted away, Chloe paid close attention to what Beca was using to clean. The labels on the bottles didn't have any words on them, which Chloe had never seen on cleaning products before. Instead, they had pictures. One had a window on it, another had a mop, and one had a rug on it. Chloe was guessing one was for the window, one was for the flor and another was for carpet. It was clever, and made it much easier for Beca to carry out her job, and it made the music teacher wonder who had gone to the trouble to do that for Beca, because it didn't seem like the brunette talked to many people in the school.

"Okay, what's your dream job?" Chloe asked from where she was leaning on the wall as she watched Beca clean – she had a free period now, and nothing better to do than talk to the brunette (actually, she couldn't think of much that she would rather do).

Beca scrunched up her face as she thought hard about the question.

"I mean, most jobs are better than this." She shrugged.

"No, not what job would you rather have, what would your _dream_ be? Like, if you had all the skills in the world, and could do any job ever, which would you do? Oh, and follow up question – what decade of music is your fave?"

"Oh, I'd make music." Beca said, smiling to herself as she thought about it.

Chloe _melted_. Her chest fluttered.

"I think you'd be amazing at making music, Beca,"

"I don't know anything about music, Chloe." Beca sighed. "I don't know how to play what someone else has made, and I don't know how to make my own."

"That's what I'm here for. I'm gonna teach you, I swear. I'm gonna teach you everything I know, and you're gonna end up getting Grammys and sleeping on a pile of money and making music every day and working with the best celebrities. They're all gonna fight to work with you when I'm done teaching you." Chloe said seriously, stepping away from the wall and standing opposite the janitor as Beca cleared a leftover tray.

Beca chuckled, but she didn't seem like she found anything particularly funny. "Yeah, right. And you're gonna go live on the moon."

"I _mean it_ , Beca." Chloe told her, raising her voice ever so slightly and meeting the brunette's eyes. Beca's eyes softened as she saw how serious Chloe was.

Suddenly, Beca got quiet. "Do you…do you really think I could do that?"

"I _know_ you could. You'll be…Beca Effing Mitchell. Walking the red carpet and giving interviews on your latest creation,"

Beca went red, clearly beyond flattered. She bit her lip, feeling a sudden impulse to hug Chloe. She settled with giving her a look, and smiling gratefully, hoping it got her point across. Chloe nodded slightly. Beca had fantasized about that her entire life, and hearing someone else telling her that she could actually do it was special.

"Thank you," she whispered, before clearing her throat slightly and getting back to work. "What about you?"

"I've always wanted to be a teacher. I don't think I'd ever change jobs," Chloe said honestly. "Hey, you didn't answer me! What's your favourite decade?"

"What's a decade, again? My dad told me before, but I can't remember." Beca said, resisting the instinct to add a 'sorry' to her words.

"It's a time of ten years. When you were ten, you had been alive for a decade. So, music decades are the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the noughties, and most recently this decade. I'm assuming you were probably alive for most of the 90s," Chloe explained, and Beca nodded, but she didn't seem like she understood completely. Chloe didn't want to be rude, but she was curious. "Don't take this as me being mean or questioning what you know, but do you know how to count?"

"Uh…" Beca hesitated. "Hang on,"

Chloe watched as Beca tapped the table for a while.

"Yeah…sort of… I don't know." Beca asked, looking completely puzzled. "Maybe not?"

"That's okay, I was just wondering," Chloe said, not making a big deal out of it,

"How…How much does someone count up to?" Beca then questioned her insecurely.

Chloe smiled. "It depends. Some people could sit and count up to 5 million, which is a really big number. I can count up to a thousand before I get bored, but if I really wanted, I could count up to 5 million too. Others can count up to a thousand, is probably the average number, but everyone is different. Some people can't count up to more than about fifty,"

"Okay. Well, my favourite is like, the 80s or 70s. I wish I'd been this age back then. What's yours?"

"I can never decide," Chloe giggled. "Every decade has amazing music, but older songs have more of a meaning than newer ones nowadays," Chloe's eyes flickered up the clock and saw that the bell was about to go. "I've gotta go teach now, but I'll see you after school, right?"

"Yeah. See you later." Beca said, glancing up at Chloe quickly before going back to cleaning. "Oh, wait!"

"I haven't moved," Chloe said in amusement.

"Uh…thanks. For lunch. And class. It was fun."

"Maybe we can make it a regular thing," Chloe winked.

The redhead didn't wait for Beca's response as she left the cafeteria, leaving the brunette smiling. Regular lunch was a change to her schedule, but a change she was definitely willing to make. After school came quickly for both music teacher and janitor, and Beca found herself standing outside Chloe's classroom once again. This time, however, her nerves were non-existent. She wasn't sure what had changed, but she wasn't second-guessing going in like she had been last time, now she felt calm, excited, even, to be sitting at the piano with her friend.

Her friend.

They were _friends_. Beca had a friend. That sounded pathetic in her head ( _I have a friend, go me)_ but she had never had more than two friends in her life, not many people wanted to be friends with the kid who couldn't write anything but their own name. Maybe that was why; as her friend, she trusted Chloe. She trusted her word, she trusted that Sunday and today meant something, and she trusted that Sunday and today weren't forced, because Chloe hadn't been forced to talk to her. She'd wanted to. And _that_ was the difference between Beca feeling nervous and Beca feeling excited.

So, today, she walked right in to the classroom.

"Hey, stranger!" Chloe said excitedly as she walked in. "I haven't seen you in forever,"

Beca looked confused. Had Chloe forgotten already? "We ate lunch together."

Chloe giggled. "I know, I'm joking. Come on, let's get started,"

Beca sat next to Chloe on the piano bench, and Chloe watched as the brunette let a small smile reach her face at the sight of the keys. The stickers were still there from last week.

"So last week the stickers helped you learn the keys. Do you think you can remember what notes which colour belonged to?" Chloe asked kindly, watching as Beca scrunched her face up – just like she'd done earlier that day – as she thought about it.

Beca shook her head softly. "Sorry,"

"That's fine, I didn't expect you to remember them, it's only the first time you've known of them at all. So, red was A, orange was B, yellow was C, green was D, blue was E, indigo was F and violet was G."

Beca nodded, and repeated the same thing she'd done the week before. She pressed down on each key and spoke softly to herself, saying which note was which, for about five minutes before stopping, her eyes still on the piano.

Chloe grinned, taking out a sheet and putting it on the piano stand. "Great. So, I'm gonna do the same song I was gonna have you play last week, but now the lines of the stave aren't there and it's only stickers. I think you'll be able to read it now. If you know it, sing along, okay?"

"Okay," Beca nodded.

Chloe had chosen the alphabet song. It was very simply to play, and unbeknownst to Beca, this was the first of many little tests. Chloe wanted to see if Beca knew the alphabet or not, especially as she seemed confused at counting. "Ahem, okay. So, I'll play and tell you the notes at the same time. C, C, G, G, A, A, G, F, F, E, E, D, D, D, D, C, G, G, F, E, E, D, G, G, G, F, E, E, D, C, C, G, G, A, A, G, F, F, E, E, D, D, C…and there you go. What was the first thing you noticed about it?"

"There was no yellow." Beca said immediately, and Chloe raised her eyebrows, but nodded.

"Yeah, that's right, Beca. There was no B note throughout the song. Did you recognise it?"

"Not really. Should I?" Beca asked, slightly worriedly.

"Not necessarily," Chloe told her, shrugging, making a mental note – _Beca isn't entirely sure about counting, and she doesn't know the alphabet song_. "How about you give it a try?"

Beca sat up a little straighter, and nodded, looking concentrated. This was the first piece of music she would _ever_ play, and she really didn't want to mess it up like she usually did. She pressed down on each note, slightly clumsily, a little harder than Chloe had. She had a few slip ups here and there, and Chloe also made a mental note of how the girl would flinch whenever she made a mistake, but overall, Chloe was impressed. Of course, it wasn't a hard song, but for Beca, it was a milestone to have done it correctly.

"I'm really impressed, Beca, well done, that was so good!" Chloe clapped excitedly. She couldn't help herself this time, and threw her arms around the smaller girl, giving her a squeeze.

Beca didn't flinch, she didn't pull away. She leant into the hug, and let the brightest smile grace her features as she stared down at the keys, her hands still in position. "I did it…I did it! Chloe, I did it!"

"You did it, Beca. You did it so well," the redhead praised her, sharing her excitement. She knew this was big for the janitor, this was only the beginning.

" _Me!"_ Beca said, almost in disbelief. " _I_ did something right. For the first time. _Ever_."

"I told you you could. You're gonna be accepting that Grammy in no time," Chloe grinned, releasing her from the hug and nudging her softly.

Beca shook her head, rolling her eyes, but the grin hadn't fallen from her face. She knew playing a simple song wasn't exactly Grammy worthy, but Chloe made her feel like a winner. What a step up from last week's crying fit in the bathroom. She just played the piano, and she had done it right. Until recently, Beca never thought this day would come. Better yet, she'd just done something for the first time and she was being _praised_ for it. That really was a first. Usually, Beca would do something for the first time, and she would be rewarded with a not-so-nice comment. There never seemed to be anything that she could do completely right, but _this_.

It was a nice change.

A change Chloe was making.

Chloe kept making changes to her life, changes she never vouched for, and yet, every change was for the better.

 **A/N: I'm gonna leave it there, you guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, also I'm updating so quickly! Are you happy? Did you enjoy it? This only took me like two days which is a first for me with this fic haha, usually I do about ten different drafts, so I hope this is satisfactory for you : ) ALSO SHOUT OUT TO MY FRIEND WHO REQUESTED SHE BE CALLED "** _ **MY MAIN HOE**_ " **BUT YEAH LOVE YOUUUU THANKS FOR THE HELP YOU HELPED MAKE THIS HAPPEN GUYS GO FOLLOW HER ON TUMBLR itsworldofgeeks**

 **Thank you for reading and stay tuned!**

 **Reviews!**

 **Lasleonas007: Thank you so much, and Beca with glasses! I never thought of that before! Maybe in the near future, thanks for the idea!**

 **until its gone: I definitely will! Hopefully soon, I'm excited to watch it! Hahaha, thank you so much, I felt like Chloe is so patient and kind-hearted that maybe just this once it'll be fun to watch her lose all her patience. Aw, thank you! Fun fact, I have never had taco bell in my life cause I'm from boring old england haha, but I've heard great things :) Yes, I agree! Beca's gaining in confidence and I love it!**

 **UnfamiliarSky: Okay firstly, HEY WASSUP I LOVE YOU! Aghhhh thank you so much! And yeah I agree, it was the little things that were revealed and the little things that Chloe picked up on that revealed a little bit haha, and honestly I know I wrote it but like Beca gaining her confidence and being the teacher I just wanted to sob, like bless her little soul she tries so hard. Aghhhh that's what I hoped for, the social cues! Thank you for noticing! Awwwwwww saying I'm an artist, bless! I couldn't be a writer without your support though, for real.**

 **Mystery-holmes: Thank you for reviewing, I hope you like this one too!**

 **Hetwaszoietsals: Thank you so much!**

 **PitchFreakTrash: Oh god, I remember waking up to this and lowkey wanting to sob, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Hmmmmm the movie was excellent, I loved loved loved it, but what I didn't like was Universal's manipulation on both cast and fans about bechloe, and how some of it was clearly edited to cut out bechloe interacting, but oh welllll, I loved it all the same. Seeing all the bellas so close and like a family, it was like the best fanfic I could watch. It was perfect! This is your favourite fic? Dude bless omg I want to cry sjsjsjksjsk you dont know how happy that makes me. Happy New Year to you too! I love you!**

 **LuckyoneChris: Thank you so much, I hope you like this one!**

 **Comiiksde: Thank you so much! And honestly, neither can I haha. I know its my writing, but I've got a million conspiracy theories flying around in my head about her past hahaha, aww I can relate too! I did learn, but I'm still very very shaky, hahahha her sailor mouth! I can relate tooooo, sometimes I've gotta keep it in my head though haha. HAHAH SAME! Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing, I hope you like this chapter!**

 **I love all of you guys! Thank you for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**The Janitor and the Music Teacher Chapter 6**

 **A/N: Wow so I'm back! I know it's been literally FOREVER and I'm SO sorry about that and I'm sorry to anyone who thought I wasn't gonna continue this fic but I totally am! I know how many of you enjoy it and I love love love writing it too and if I stopped it I'd be letting everyone down including myself! My only excuse is that all year I've been unbelievably busy, but now exams are over and I don't have any plays or dance shows to put on and I actually have time to think about what I write now! This Chapter has gone through a million and one drafts (it is literally saved on my computer as 'tjatmt 6 real' haha) as I've been trying to write it this entire time, but only now has my mind decided to produce something not awful haha. And for anyone wondering if I'm continuing my other fanfics, fear not because none of them are complete and I have no intention of abandoning them either!**

 **Anyway so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and it isn't too haphazard or anything. Please tell me what you think because I literally need CONSTANT validation haha, and stay tuned I guess! Thanks for sticking with this fic for so long : )**

Chloe wasn't entirely sure how on earth she was going to teach Beca things other than music without the girl noticing. The alphabet was a good start, however Chloe had no idea what to do next. How was she even supposed to teach Beca the letters without the janitor realising something was fishy by the time they got to 'B'? She knew she wanted to help – she knew she needed to help, but she just didn't know how.

She once heard that if she was trying to figure something out, making a list would help. A list of all the things she knows to be true. And a list sounded like a good idea. She was sitting at her kitchen table, forgotten Chinese take-out left haphazardly to the side, with her notebook strewn out in front of her, and a pencil in hand. She usually used this book to jot down any thoughts she had about music and whatnot, but maybe this could be her 'Beca' notebook instead – just somewhere she could keep all her thoughts in one place, because god knows she has too many to remember them all.

Beca

\- Shy

\- tends to panic

\- will flinch if you get too close

\- Loves music

\- A janitor

\- Can't read

\- Can barely write

\- Can barely count

\- Excitable when she gets things right

\- Doesn't seem to get things right often

\- Often confused

\- Can't maintain eye contact for long

\- Tends to bite lip

\- Often nervous

\- Can ride a bike

\- Likes taco belle and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

\- Hurt in the past?

\- Wants to be more than just a janitor

\- Smart despite lack of basic knowledge

\- Likes being friends with me

\- Loveable!

\- Sweet

\- Literally so precious

\- Pretty

\- Wide-eyed

Chloe's smile widened by the end of her list. She just needed to do a ton of research and learn a few more things about the brunette and she might be able to discover both what was wrong and a way to fix it. The only thing she didn't want to do was freak Beca out, in any way shape or form. The brunette seemed to find it hard to trust people, so Chloe wasn't about to tell anyone else about Beca to get them to help.

Stifling a yawn, the redhead sat back and put her pencil down, picking up a few – now cold – noodles with her chopsticks. She could start the research tomorrow; tomorrow was Sunday, and that meant another day to spend with Beca. Maybe she'd be able to find out a bit more about her.

"Are you serious?" Chloe said in a pitch _much_ higher than usual, eyebrows raised in clear worry as she peered down the hill.

"Yes," Beca said. "The grass was hard to ride on, so I thought if you go down staying on the bike, you might ride for longer than when you have to pedal."

"But…I'm gonna fall to my death if I just go down this," Chloe spoke cautiously, fidgeting with the bell on her bike.

"I'll catch you if you fall. I'll run next to you," Beca said, moving to the grass next to the path and dropping her bike. After hearing no response, the brunette looked over her shoulder at Chloe with a small smirk as she spoke in a teasing tone. "What? Don't you trust me?"

Chloe had to let out a small chuckle at that – confident Beca equalled funny Beca. "I do,"

"Right. So if you trust that I'm gonna catch you and you're wearing all that stuff to not get hurt, then you won't." Beca smiled, her logic making clear sense to her in her head.

Of course, Chloe knew Beca had left out that any cracks or rocks in the path could send her flying, and she hadn't thought through if Chloe happened to fall at speed on the wrong side where Beca couldn't catch her, but for whatever reason, the redhead didn't want to point out any flaws in the janitor's plan; Beca was trying as hard as she could to teach her and she didn't want to lower the brunette's confidence in any way.

Chloe took a deep breath. "Okay."

Beca grinned, throwing her jacket on her bike and waiting for Chloe to mount her own. When Chloe just stood staring at the slope of the hill, Beca cleared her throat.

"It won't work if you're not on the bike."

Chloe blinked at the brunette, before forcing out a giggle, "Yeah, right…"

The music teacher was fast to comply, and before she knew it Beca was holding onto the saddle.

"Okay, I'm gonna push you when I say go. And I'm gonna run next to you."

Chloe gripped onto the handle bars and gulped, feeling her pulse quicken. "I-Is there a countdown?"

"Go!"

The poor redhead let out a shriek as she was suddenly moving, racing, speeding down the hill. All the greenery blurred past. She faintly heard Beca shout something as she ran next to her – somehow managing to keep up with the bike going at a _1000_ miles per hour – but she couldn't hear what exactly over the wind rushing past her (which was a shame considering Chloe had never heard Beca so loud before). She was tearing up, but Chloe couldn't tell if that was because of the wind or because of how afraid she was. Beca kept shouting, flailing her arms about wildly, and she seemed panicked. If _Beca_ was panicked at this stage, then the music teacher was ready to catapult herself off the bike. But she was going fast, _too_ fast, to even think about how to press down on the breaks, or somehow stop. She suddenly felt a hard bump on the front wheel, and a scream was ripped from her throat as she really did get catapulted into the air.

The redhead had always said she wished she could fly, but she did _not_ mean like this.

Never like this.

All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and wait for the impact, wait to feel all the different cracks when she broke all the bones in her body as she was almost certain she would. But instead of landing on the hard concrete, Chloe felt a tug and she was suddenly falling onto something a lot softer than what she expected.

"Argh!" The something grunted as it took the blow, tightening its arms around Chloe. The redhead opened her eyes to see she was lying on top of Beca, their faces mere inches away from each other.

The janitor's eyes fluttered open and met with Chloe's orbs. "I told you I'd catch you," Beca breathed out.

Chloe couldn't help but feel the laughter bubbling up in her chest, and she couldn't help the giggles that began to escape until she was lying on top of the brunette, laughing loudly and freely. Beca grinned, navy eyes sparkling as she caught her friend's contagious chortles and started laughing too. And then neither could stop, more and more giggles spurting out until their stomachs were aching and there were tears streaming. And Beca had never been this happy before, she'd never just laughed with someone for so long, never felt as though there was nothing stopping her from lying on the grass and simply laughing. It was an amazing feeling.

Eventually, they somehow manage to cease their laughter and save their stomachs from any more cramps.

"I almost died, Beca!" Chloe exclaimed as reality kicked in, rolling off the brunette and lying on the grass next to her.

"So did I!" Beca said, staring up at the sky. "I'm the one who fell on the ground!"

Chloe giggled again, before getting up onto her knees and looking onto the path. Her bike was lying at the bottom of the hill, looking a bit pathetic with battle scars all over it. "Do you think my bike died?"

"No need to sound so excited, Beale." Beca joked, still watching the clouds, before getting up too and looking towards where Chloe's bike ended up. She winced; it definitely looked like it had seen better days.

Upon closer inspection, the janitor and the music teacher saw that the bike had lost its basket and the left handle was broken, and its chains were more than a little tangled.

"Can you fix it?" Chloe asked quietly.

Beca scoffed. "Me? No. My dad can…"

Chloe grinned. "Great! Can we take it to him?"

The brunette went quiet for a moment – the last thing she wanted to do was see her father. But this wasn't about her, and she wouldn't be able to keep teaching Chloe if the redhead didn't have a bike. "Y-Yeah, tomorrow after school."

Chloe's grin widened – not only was she happy to be getting her bike cleaned, but she was also keen to meet Beca's father. She hadn't exactly heard many nice things about him, and she was interested to see what he was like. The pair picked up their bikes and made their way further down the path to the playground.

"It's pretty hot for October, isn't it?" Chloe huffed, dropping her broken bike on the ground and sitting on the swings. Beca watched her do so and huffed out a small chuckle - trust Chloe to sit on the swings instead of an actual seat; was she a teacher or a student?

"I guess," Beca shrugged, having never had much more of an opinion on the weather, and plopped down into the swing next to the redhead.

"Are you doing anything else today?" Chloe asked suddenly, kicking off and starting to swing.

Beca looked around at the more or less deserted park, slightly subconscious that one of the kids from school would see them - two adults - messing about on the playground. But Chloe looked carefree and happy as she giggled and kicked her legs, so Beca decided she'd rather indulge the musician than sit there anxious like she always did. "Uh, no."

"Do you wanna come and have lunch at mine? We can watch a movie or something. It's not like either of us have anything better to do. Only if you want to, obviously, I'm not gonna force you or any-"

"You know I'm the one who usually rambles?" Beca cut her off. "And lunch sounds good...but, I don't, uh..."

"What?" Chloe asked her softly, intrigued.

"I don't really watch movies." Beca said quietly, looking the opposite way from the music teacher.

"Why not?"

"I guess they're just boring to me. I get that people put work into them, but they're so...so like obvious. All the ones I've seen are. The jock always ends up with the quiet girl who thought she would never go to prom with him, Harry Potter always wins. It just... seems fake. Life is way harder than that."

"That's true, I guess you're right. We can do something else then. We can watch TV?"

Beca shrugged and smiled softly. "I don't mind. Is your house far away?"

"About a ten minute walk," Chloe shrugged, stopping the swing.

"I-I don't know how long that is." Beca sighed. Chloe notice how the brunette clenched her jaw and kicked the floor with her shoe. She concluded that Beca wasn't frustrated at her for saying anything, but rather at herself for not knowing what Chloe was talking about.

"It's not long. It's like the amount of time it takes to clean the windows on the first floor." The redhead said kindly, and it looked as though Beca was thinking the action through.

"Oh." The short girl eventually said. "That's not too long."

"Yeah," Chloe giggled, standing up and grabbing her bike.

Once again, Beca followed her and picked up her own bike, before they began to walk towards the main road. Beca was silent by nature, whilst Chloe was wracking her brains for something to say. She felt as though she still barely knew anything about her friend, and she wanted to change that for more reasons than one. One, the most obvious, being that she genuinely did want to get to know Beca. But, more importantly, all Chloe could think about was her notebook. If only she had it with her and could jot down all that she needed to as it happened (but _no,_ because that would be creepy). Either way, she _needed_ to do this, for Beca. She had to find out more, she had to crack the code. In fact, that's exactly what Beca was – a code. She's an enigma. And with the right knowledge, the right amount of research, and the right overall conclusion, Chloe could figure out how to help her friend, and how to bring Beca out of the shell she seems to be trapped in.

"Let's play 20 questions!" Chloe said suddenly, making Beca jump slightly.

"What's that?"

"We each take turns in asking each other questions. We're only allowed up to 20 questions. You have to answer truthfully." Chloe explained the game to her.

Beca bit her lip and stared down at her converse as they walked. She didn't know what to say, because answering truthfully anything that Chloe asks her made her feel panicked. She didn't want Chloe to know more about her, the redhead already knew her biggest secret. She felt embarrassed enough knowing that Chloe knew she couldn't read or write or even count much. Then again, Chloe was her friend, and it was just a game. Chloe was her friend voluntarily, and friends don't judge each other. Beca knew that. Not that she'd ever had a friend who didn't judge her even a little bit, but Chloe was different. She was nicer than all the rest. So maybe the janitor just needed to trust Chloe. Which was a new concept, considering the few people Beca had ever trusted let her down one way or another. But, she had already established that every change Chloe brought so far has been for the better. So, this change must be for the better too.

Beca gripped the handle of her bike as she nodded. "O-Okay."

Chloe had been watching the girl expectedly waiting for her answer, and she could tell Beca didn't look particularly excited to play the game.

"We don't have to if-"

"I want to. Uh...do you have any siblings?" Beca started it off. This time she wasn't letting herself talk her way out of something potentially fun.

"Yes! Two brothers. They're older than me by a year, and they're twins." Chloe smiled. "They used to tease me all the time in high school, a blessing and a curse."

"How could teasing ever be a blessing to you?" Beca asked her, scoffing ever so slightly.

Chloe narrowed her eyes for a split second at the brunette, before smiling. "It's my turn to ask a question. What's your favourite ice cream flavour?" She wanted to start off calmly, she didn't want to scare Beca in any way with a hard question that forced her to open up. Although Chloe wanted to know more about the girl, she didn't want her to get nervous because Chloe couldn't hold her tongue.

Beca looked down at her feet for a moment, before shrugging. "I've never had it."

Chloe's jaw dropped, and she almost tripped over her bike in shock. "You what? You're 22 and you've never tasted ice cream before?"

Beca shrugged again, blushing. "I-I wasn't allowed it. My dad said it was a treat for when I did well in school."

Chloe's heart felt heavy. She tried not to pity Beca most of the time, but from what the redhead's heard so far, Beca's dad was plain cruel to his daughter. It made her feel sick how much Beca missed out on as a child. In America, ice cream was a given. Every kid had ice cream, and if they couldn't have normal ice cream, their parents would get them a special kind. Having not yet left the park, Chloe didn't say anything but suddenly made a sharp right and strode off to where she knew the ice cream truck was parked most of the time. She was not ending this day without watching the janitor taste ice cream for the first time.

Noticing she couldn't hear Beca behind her, the teacher stopped and turned around. The determined frown etched in her features dissipated immediately into a sweet smile as she saw Beca still standing where she left her, looking unsure of what to do but waiting for further instruction.

"Beca!"

The small girl's eyes widened further and she rushed to follow the musician, and they walked side by side for another minute.

Once Beca saw they were going to the ice cream truck, she stopped.

"What's up?" Chloe asked.

The girls eyebrows were raised in worry, and she was fiddling with the bell on her bike. "I'm not allowed..."

"Your dad isn't here right now." Chloe reasoned carefully.

"He'll get mad at me." Beca said in a small voice, once again making her seem so much younger than she was.

"Beca. You're twenty-two years old. You can make your own decisions, and he can't control what you do forever. It's just an ice cream cone. He probably won't even find out," Chloe felt slightly bad for pushing the janitor, but she was helping. She knew that.

Beca still looked conflicted, so Chloe tried a different approach.

"Did he used to let you eat pop tarts all the time?"

Beca shook her head.

"and does he care now that you eat them every day?"

Beca shook her head again, staring at the truck.

"And when was the last time he told you no ice cream?"

"Ages ago...when I stopped home school."

"So considering it hasn't been brought up in so long, he probably doesn't care anymore. It'll be okay. And if he does get mad, let him blame me."

Beca thought it over and looked at Chloe, nodding. The corners of her lips curled into a small, excited smile. Beca had heard a lot about ice cream and she was excited to finally know what the hype was about. She dropped her bike and went up to the truck, peering up at all the pictures of different flavours and lollies.

"I think you should try vanilla first. Cause it's the most basic one." Chloe came up behind her, barely able to contain her own excitement now. Watching Beca in awe and happy made her heart burst.

"Hi girls, what can I get for ya?" The man in the truck smiled warmly at them.

Chloe grinned up at him. "My friend here has never had ice cream before, so could you please get us your best vanilla cone," Chloe bit down a chuckle as Beca barely even noticed they were talking as she was still staring at all the different options.

The man looked shocked, but nodded. "Yes ma'am,"

The janitor looked away from the truck for a moment, noticing the man was filling a cone with ice cream. Her eyes bulged, and she looked from the man to Chloe to the man to Chloe to the man to Chloe, the fact that she was finally getting to eat what she knew everyone else loved suddenly hitting her.

The ice cream man put a tiny drizzle of strawberry sauce and a flake into Beca's ice cream, before grinning at the short girl and extending his hand for the brunette to take the cone. Beca stared up at him, before biting her lip and taking the ice cream. She held it in front of her for at least a minute, until Chloe had to let out the small chuckle she'd been trying to hold in as she watched Beca examine the treat.

"You have to eat it before it melts." Chloe told her friend, now leaning on the truck as both she and the guy waited to see Beca's reaction.

Beca seemed to jump slightly, before nodding and quickly bringing the ice cream to her mouth and taking a bite. Her eyes seemed to bulge even further and she let out a tiny squeak – further confirming Chloe's assumption that she was a tiny mouse – before furrowing her eyebrows as she seemingly tried to chew but found the ice cream had already melted in her mouth. She looked at the redhead in confusion, and took the time to roll her eyes as she saw Chloe was watching with a mischievous grin. The next bit Beca had was taken more carefully, and she broke out into a grin wider than Chloe's.

"Is it good?" Chloe asked in amusement, at the same time the man asked 'you like it?'.

Beca nodded, too keen on eating her ice cream to speak. After another bite she stopped and huffed. "It's cold,"

"You aren't supposed to bite it," Chloe laughed. "It's too cold for your teeth. Lick it instead,"

Beca blushed and stuck her tongue out, almost going cross eyed as she focused on licking the ice cream, making the guy in the truck laugh and turn away to make another for Chloe.

The redhead turned back around. "Oh, could I have sprinkles on mine please?"

"Sure thing, ma'am," the man said, filling up the cone. He looked up at Beca and chuckled – the small brunette was in her own little world, seemingly trying to devour the ice cream by licking it like Chloe had told her, but going as fast as she could because Chloe also told her it would melt; however, the faster Beca went, the messier she got. Chloe followed his gaze and giggled, both her and the ice cream guy trying to figure out if she was actually eating the ice cream or if she was just smearing it onto her nose. Either way, she was having fun and that's all Chloe wanted.

"How much do I owe you?" The redhead turned back around to face the guy as he finished putting the sprinkles on her cone and held it out for her to take.

"On the house," he smiled.

"No, no it's fine, here-"

"You've just given ice cream to your friend for the first time. And seeing an adult's reaction to ice cream is a first for me, so you've already paid. Honestly." He said genuinely.

Chloe smiled up at him and took her ice cream. "Thanks,"

The music teacher turned round to find Beca popping the last bit of the cone into her mouth, looking both gleeful and proud of herself. There were dollops of ice cream on her nose and her right cheek, not to mention her mouth was coated with it. But Beca didn't seem to notice, as she was just looking up at the truck and all the different ice creams she now wanted to try. Chloe laughed and turned the janitor to face her.

"Ice cream is the best thing I have eaten ever." Beca said, her twinkling orbs staring into Chloe's eyes. She was practically bouncing in her post-excitement.

"And the messiest," Chloe chuckled quietly, reaching out with her thumb and wiping the dollop off the brunette's nose, a small affectionate smile adorning her face as she shook her head slightly and cupped the brunette's cheek to wipe the rest off. The redhead blushed slightly as she realised she kept her hand there a little longer than necessary, and quickly retracted it and took a lick of her own ice cream.

Beca stopped bouncing, and her smile dropped as her cheeks flared. Suddenly, she could barely breathe. She had no idea how to react to Chloe's actions – nobody had ever wiped anything off her face like that before. Not so sweetly, not with their eyes sparkling, not with their face smiling like Chloe's had. Did friends do this? Was this normal? For the first time that day, she wished she knew more about the world than she did, because maybe then she would have been able to decipher whatever that had just meant. Beca had seen couples cup each other's cheeks and do exactly what Chloe just did to her, but her and Chloe were _not_ a couple. She was confused. God, was she confused. Did friends wipe each other's cheeks? Or did it mean anything else? Did anything Chloe had said or done to her so far in their friendship mean something more? Suddenly she was replaying every interaction they had ever shared. Chloe was always happy, did that mean something? She was usually happy, did that mean anything? Did Chloe want it to mean anything? Did she? The brunette had never had a friend who cared like Chloe did, so she had absolutely no clue whether or not this was what friends who cared did. Maybe she should do it back? But one quick glance at the musician showed her that Chloe had nothing that needed to be wiped.

Now Beca was _really_ confused.

 **Reviews!**

Hetwaszoietsals: **Thank you so much! Sorry this update has taken so long!**

Guest: **Haha, maybe so!**

UnfamiliarSky: **Hey dude! Before I even reply to your review I just wanna say that my tumblr account got terminated and deleted! I have no idea why, maybe tumblr thought I was too inactive or something, but I tried to log in the other day and it was just gone :/ and aw thank you! I remember being pretty happy with all those things when I wrote it haha. Yeah, someone had to care at some point! I wonder who… Agh thank you so much! I've bee pretty careful with picking and choosing what Beca struggles with the most. Sorry you had to wait so long for this chapter, and that I literally dropped off of the face of the earth in the process!**

Mystery-holmes: **Aw, thank you for reviewing! And yeah, I love writing how at ease Beca seems to be with Chloe compared to how she usually is without her!**

Lasleonas007: **Aw, thanks! We might be learning a bit more about Beca and her dad next chapter…whenever that will be haha! Hopefully a lot sooner than the 6 months it took me to write this one :/**

Until its gone: **Haha, yeah, if she was a ray of sunshine all the time it would be so unrealistic! Aw, thank you! I thought a lot about how Beca was going to be reacting to all of these changes and I'm really happy I went down this route!**

Itsmeblahblahblah: **I definitely have been and will continue to!**

Comiiksde: **Haha to be perfectly honest, I'm on the same boat as you and Chloe right now, I can't pick one until I know more about this version of Beca hahaha. YEAH I AGREE! I mean I know I wrote it and whatever but I totes agree, Chloe just seems to have connected with Beca like nobody else ever has and it makes me so happy haha. I'm so sorry it's taken so long, but here!**

PitchFreakTrash: **Aww that's so cute! Haha (oh god don't remind me abt ugly universal EW). Hahaha, thank you! And I definitely agree, I love seeing their friendship growing! Oof, I hope your patience didn't wear thin with this chapter taking so so so long, but hey there was definitely a spark in this chapter! AWW THAT'S THE BEST THING EVER, I HOPE IT CHEERS YOU UP! I LOVE YOU TOO!**

Smoothcass: **THANK YOU SO MUCH! THIS ISN'T EXACTLY SOON, BUT…**


	7. Chapter 7

**Trigger warning: mention of bullying/homophobia (nothing graphic, just chat about it)**

Monday morning found Beca waking up with a smile on her face. She had had a pretty vivid dream, where Chloe had taken her to Italy and given her proper gelato for the first time - Italians and ice cream was one thing she actually remembered from when her dad used to home-school her, probably because she was interested in ice cream, having never had it. It was unrealistic, yet it felt completely real. She knew it was some sort of version of Chloe buying her ice cream the day before, but it made her happy in her dream. She'd never had that sort of dream about her friends, hell, she'd never had many friends to have dreams about, and it felt good. It felt good for Beca to know she had a friend like Chloe who would probably actually want to re-enact her dream one day.

Thinking about their friendship as her eyes adjusted to the light was actually what made Beca lose her smile. She didn't know what being a friend entailed, having never had a best friend, and only having a few people who used to tolerate her from time to time, the janitor knew nothing of friendship. She hadn't even paid attention to friendships happening around her very often: Chloe was her first _proper_ friend. And did friends cup each other's cheeks often? Her mind kept replaying how Chloe had cupped her cheek. Once she'd gotten home, Beca had immediately asked her phone to tell her about friends, and she did her best to listen and understand, but her phone started talking to her about a tv show she'd never seen, so it wasn't much use to her. Instead, she got it to show her videos of people in relationships and flirting, and a few times people had done that to each other too. It confused her even more, because now all she could think about was the possibility that maybe Chloe meant to cup her cheek as a way of flirting.

Beca had never flirted before.

She'd only ever liked one guy, in high school. At least, she thought she liked him. He'd been one of the few people who didn't mind talking to her and smiling at her in the hallways. But eventually, after being teased by his friends, he stopped talking to her.

Anyway, the point was, Beca had little to no experience with liking people, and even less experience with acting on any feelings.

Relationships were never on her mind, at least not after what her dad used to tell her. Then again, by that logic, most things probably shouldn't be on her mind based on what her dad told her.

So to suddenly have Chloe maybe-flirting with her was entirely new territory. Her cousin was in college right now. She had a lot of experience with relationships, so maybe she could help.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Beca was just overthinking as usual, and Chloe had no interest in her whatsoever.

Subconsciously, Beca pushed that thought to the back of her mind.

She was feeling somewhat excited as she got ready for the day and ate her frosted flakes and her pop tart. Even making her peanut butter and jelly sandwich made her smile as she thought back to having lunch with the music teacher.

Somehow, everything she did ended up reminding her of something her and Chloe had talked about or done together before. Riding her bike to school made her think of Sunday mornings. Listening to some piano music as she rode made her grin as she thought about how now she knew how to play, something she never thought she'd ever learn.

The janitor had never smiled so much thinking about one person. But that was the affect Chloe had on her, and on everyone. She'd seen how happy all of Chloe's students are, more so now that she sat in on some lessons, and she'd seen how whenever a teacher talks to the redhead, they end up smiling or laughing.

She wondered if Chloe cupped everyone's cheek, and secretly, she hoped that Chloe didn't.

The entire morning absolutely dragged on for Beca. Every small interaction she had with other teachers as she cleaned their classrooms, and every wipe of a windowsill or mop of a floor seemed to drag on forever. There was a pretty hard part of the morning for her, though, which led to her not being able to join Chloe's class.

A kid's locker was vandalized, and Beca actually found the kid sitting next to it in tears. She'd never dealt with anyone upset before, and immediately felt her anxiety begin to spike. But she gulped it down and thought about what she used to want the janitor to have done whenever he saw her struggling around the school. The brunette crouched down cautiously in front of the kid. She looked up and down the hallway – there was no one there. Beca knew that she wouldn't have wanted there to be people around if the janitor had come to her, so she made sure to check the vicinity. It was class time, so there was no one around to see.

"W-What happened?" The janitor asked softly, swallowing heavily again as her eyes widened slightly when the kid looked up.

"T-They won't stop…" He whimpered. He looked young, probably a freshman, with curly dark hair and eyes as wide as Beca's.

From afar, they looked like they could be siblings.

"Who? What did they do?" Beca asked.

The boy sniffled and hugged his knees closer to his chest. "The j-jocks…they've b-been bullying me f-for weeks…"

Beca's chest felt heavy. She knew exactly how this felt.

"What have they been doing?" She pressed softly, moving to sit cross-legged opposite the boy. Her heart was hammering – she never spoke to anyone unless prompted, not even her cousin, and she was only just learning how to speak to Chloe properly. This was _definitely_ out of her comfort zone.

But it wasn't about her. A kid was crying and out of class and she couldn't just walk past him.

"Ev-Everything!" He sobbed out.

The janitor had never dealt with anyone crying before. And nobody had ever dealt with her crying in a way that made her feel any better. She inwardly cursed herself for being helpless and incapable of _another_ thing, just to add on to the list of Things Beca Mitchell Didn't Know. This boy was in need of comfort, and she couldn't give much more than her presence and a few questions.

She felt stupid.

Beca stayed silent until he was ready to continue talking. "N-Now they've spray-painted m-my locker."

"What's your name?" Beca bit her lip.

"Cameron."

"Okay, Cameron, can you say why they keep doing stuff?"

"B-Because I'm gay and they don't like it." He whispered, his face crumpling as he sniffled again.

Beca's stomach dropped to the floor. She felt like sitting there and crying with Cameron, because the fact that he was being bullied over something so _natural_ was more than just upsetting.

"The jocks are idiots." She said, her voice cracking a little. He was being bullied over something out of his control, just like she was when she was younger. "And being gay is _nothing_ to be emb-embarrassed about. Have you told anyone about the bullying?"

Cameron shook his head.

"No friends or anyone?"

"My friends are in another high school." Cameron said quietly.

Beca took a deep breath. She thought maybe if Cameron could see she understands, he'd feel better. "I-I was bullied a lot in high school. About stuff I couldn't do anything about, like you. And I didn't tell anyone at all. I wish I did. I think you should."

"It'll get worse."

"If the teachers can make it stop, it will be good. I'm gonna clean your locker now, then is there a teacher you wanna tell?"

Cameron took a shaky breath, and hiccupped. "Miss Beale."

Beca couldn't help but smile. If she were him, she'd want to tell Chloe too.

"Okay." She got up and looked at the words dangerously spray-painted onto what she assumed was Cameron's locker. She wanted to know what it said.

"Cameron? Can you keep a secret?"

The boy nodded and stood up (Beca tried not to think about the fact that he was taller than her).

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Yeah."

Beca looked up at the ceiling for a moment. Now it was her turn to take a shaky breath. She had _never_ outright told anybody this. They either found out or they asked her. This was a first for her. In fact, she was surprised that she had enough confidence within her to say it at all. The janitor suspected she wouldn't have had such confidence before she became friends with Chloe.

"The main thing I was bullied about…was not being able to read or write." She said quietly. "So I-I can't read what your locker says."

Cameron didn't even bat an eyelash at the revelation. "That's okay. Not everyone can do everything."

Beca really _did_ feel tears prickling her eyes then. Her heart swelled. Nobody apart from Chloe had ever accepted her problems so easily. It meant a hell of a lot to her.

"Can you tell me what it says?"

Cameron's voice was unsteady. "Faggots get Maggots."

Beca's eyebrows rose, and then furrowed in worry. "What? Is that like, a threat?"

The freshman's bottom lip wobbled, and he nodded.

"There is no way Miss Beale or me is going to let these guys do that. I swear." Beca said, beginning to clean the words off Cameron's locker.

She worked in silence, her heart actually getting heavier and heavier with pity as she listened to Cameron's sniffles. This kid really didn't deserve to be bullied, and especially not about something that should be a basic human right.

Once his locker was absolutely spotless, Beca stopped and put her stuff back into her cart.

"Uh, Miss Beale is still teaching. Do you wanna eat with us?" Beca asked awkwardly, staring down at the floor and toeing it with her used converse.

Cameron opened his locker and took out a lunchbox. "They'll bully me eve more if they see I'm eating with the janitor and the music teacher, no offence or anything. It's bad enough when they bully me for eating alone."

The corner of the girl's mouth rose in amusement at Cameron calling them 'the janitor and the music teacher'. It had a nice ring to it. "What about if we eat in her classroom? No one will see."

Cameron thought it over briefly, before smiling a little. "Okay. Thank you for cleaning my locker, Miss."

Beca frowned instantly, eyes a little wide. "I'm _Beca_ , not Miss. And it's my job, but I would have done it anyways. Let's uh…go to Miss Beale."

Chloe's room was only around the hall, in a little music alcove, which Beca was happy about because as much as she'd just spoken to Cameron, small talk really wasn't her forte, especially not when she was small talking with an upset kid.

They reached Chloe just as the bell rang, and quickly stood to one side as the freshmen left class excited for lunch. Beca spotted a jock leaving, and she watched him carefully. She wondered if he was one of the guys who bullied Cameron, and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw him glare in Cameron's direction. Beca's eyes darted to Cameron, but the boy was clearly trying to busy himself counting bricks.

Well, maybe not clearly to most people, but Beca liked to do the same thing sometimes.

She knew why he was doing it. He was feeling anxious. He needed something to distract himself with. Beca knew all too well, and somehow, that made her want to help Cameron even more. What he was going through sucked. She'd been there.

Chloe had been on her mind all morning, but now, as she stood waiting to see her, the excitement had faded and been replaced with something she wasn't quite sure of. It made her stomach feel uneasy, but at the same time, strong. She didn't know how to explain it. All she knew was that there were more important things than her seeing Chloe today.

Namely, helping Cameron.

Once the last kid left, Chloe was packing a few things away before she stood up ready to go to lunch. She looked up and immediately spotted Beca, and her face lit up into a happy grin.

"Look who finally decided to show up," Chloe teased.

Beca's face erupted into a nervous sile "I-can we eat here? With Cameron?" She stepped to her left to show the boy who was behind her, his eyes red-rimmed and still a little wet.

Chloe looked surprised for a split second, before smiling again. "Hey, Cam!"

"Hi…"

Chloe pushed two desks together and sat down. She waited for Beca and Cameron to come in and follow suit.

"What's up?" The redhead asked airily, because she knew Beca would never ask to eat lunch with a student unless it was super important.

Beca looked at Cameron, waiting for him to start talking, but the boy was gnawing at his lip and fiddling with his paper bag.

"W-Want me to talk?" Beca asked. Cameron nodded quickly. "Uh, I was going to you when I saw him sat crying. Cameron's being bullied, for weeks; because he's gay. And today they spray-painted his locker 'faggots get maggots'."

The music teacher's face morphed from an easy-going smile to a frown of great concern. Her baby blue orbs flickered between her friend and her student. "Who's been bullying you?"

"The jocks." Cameron muttered sadly, still not looking up.

"Sweetie there are loads of jocks. Who, specifically? Or is it the whole team?"

"Chase, Charlie, Angelo, Afri, Jordan…and Jay…" His voice faltered and softened at Jay's name, and he bit his lip.

"And…what specifically have they been doing?" Chloe felt her chest get heavy as she continued her questions. Charlie was in her class, and he seemed like such a nice boy. She didn't know the rest, but she couldn't believe Charlie would bully anyone, especially not over something like this.

Cameron's lip started wobbling, and his eyes filled with tears again. The redhead looked to Beca, but saw she was looking in concern at the freshman.

"They call my house sometimes after school and on the weekend and say stuff…and they used to comment faggot on my i-insta, but I disabled the comments. And…they always just say stuff and pass me notes all day. But they don't really do anything physical, apart from shoving." Cameron sniffled through his speech, rubbing his arm.

"Just cause it's not hurting your body doesn't mean it's not um…not…"

"Important or worthy of distress." Chloe finished, knowing what Beca was trying to say, and the janitor gulped and nodded with a small, frustrated sigh. "Mental abuse is just as damaging, if not more so sometimes, as physical. Are you scared a lot?"

Cameron nodded.

Chloe sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm going to tell the principal."

Both Beca and Cameron's heads snapped up to look at the teacher.

"No!" Cameron exclaimed. "You can't. They'll just do worse. Please…"

"Cam..." Chloe said, and Beca noticed she was using the same voice she used whenever the janitor was worried. "I know you're scared. But if the principal and other teachers know, not only can they look out for any more bullying, but they can reprimand each of the boys with _more_ than just a slap on the wrist, and make sure it stops. It's better for the teachers to know and for us to help you than for you to keep dealing with this by yourself until you can't anymore. You did the right thing telling-"

Beca zoned out there. What Chloe said hit a bit close to home. She remembered _exactly_ what happened when she couldn't deal with it anymore.

"-I guess you're right, Miss."

"I'm always right, Cam," Chloe winked, before opening her lunchbox and taking out _another_ box (seeing boxes within boxes made Beca chuckle) of what looked like Chow Mein. "Anyways! Forget the sad stuff, that's over with. What's your favourite show?"

Cam smiled a little, and he took out a PB+J sandwich. "Glee."

The older brunette blushed lightly as she saw she had the same lunch, and opened her paper bag to take out her own sandwich.

Chloe's eyes lit up. "Oh my god I love glee! Who's your favourite character?"

"Kurt," Cameron actually smiled this time. "He's the _greatest_ and he just…every song he sings is-"

Beca ate in silence and watched Chloe and Cameron talk about this show. From what she heard, it was about music. And it sounded pretty cool. She didn't really watch tv, but maybe she could ask Chloe to show it to her. The janitor was amazed at how quickly Chloe had Cameron smiling and laughing, and how quickly it became as if Beca had never even found the boy sobbing by his locker. He looked so carefree and happy now, and that was all down to Chloe.

Beca didn't know how she did it.

The redhead had done the same with her before, after her first music lesson. Although, Beca was sure the music teacher hadn't known she was particularly upset, she still managed to make Beca happy with not so much more than an obvious interest in something Beca was saying. It was a gift, it must be, because Beca had never met anyone who could turn someone's frown upside down in such a short space of time. She was almost sure nobody could. She'd never seen it been done, she wouldn't know how to do it if she tried, and heaven knows nobody had ever done it to her before Chloe came along.

Chloe really was someone special.

 **A/N: Hi! I'm back with an update in a** _ **much**_ **shorter space of time than the last six months it took for me to update,,,that's progress, right? I also have a pretty clear idea for the next chapter so let's hope I can maybe try and get that up before I go back to school! I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, it was very Beca-heavy and a lot of her thoughts (which I think a lot of you seem to like) and also derive into her past just a** _ **little**_ **more. We're slowly climbing the steps to finding out all the factors that ended up making Beca the way she is. I hope it didn't have a filler chapter feel to it, although my friends tell me it doesn't and that I shouldn't worry, but you lot know me, constant validation is always needed ssksksk but yeah yknow I thought like seven chapters,,,,as much as I absolutely love writing plain bechloe building trust and learning about each other, it was about time I brought in another face. I haven't figured out how often Cameron will be popping up, but we'll see him around! I thought it was nice to add him in as I added a little to Beca's thought process and it was also nice to see how Beca interacted with people for more than a minute, especially people on a predicament. I've never really been bullied (at least, I haven't** _ **recognised**_ **anything as particularly damaging bullying, or I've blocked stuff out of my memory) so I hope I portrayed how I perceive it feels well and somewhat true to real life. If anyone thinks it should be different, do mention it in a review as some constructive criticism and I'll be sure to think about it! And if you've read this whole paragraph, I'm happy you care sksksksk**

 **Anyways, thank you so much for reading, it means the WORLD to me, I really really love writing this fic, it's probably my favourite thing I've ever written. I hope you liked it!**

 **There will be a lot more Chloe in the next chapter, and it should be a lot happier too! :/**

 **Reviews!**

Until its gone: **Aw thank you so much! Pfffft the comedic tone wasn't really there in this chapter haha but chapter 6 was supposed to be funny and soft and a little eye opening and I'm so glad that you found it to be just that! Oh gosh, me too! I mean, I know I'm technically the one writing but Beca is like a precious baby who just needs to be protected skfskfk I hope you enjoyed this chapter too, although it wasn't as happy as the last :/**

Lasleonas007: **Thank you! Aw, bless, I'm so happy you're excited to read it! I hope I never end up disappointing you. Haha, the ice cream bit was one of my favourite moments in the story so far to write about! Oh, don't worry, I definitely will put some trigger warnings if I think it might be necessary, and if I don't put a trigger warning for something you or anyone else thinks could be a trigger, please say yknow hEY that's a bit :/ for me/for some people and I'll be sure to add the warning, but I'll do my best! The last thing I want to do is upset anyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

Kdubya: **Ah, so am I! I did think it would be this chapter that we would meet Beca's father, but my brain took a random turn last minute and created Cameron, but I can definitely promise that my plan for the next chapter is for Beca's dad to be introduced. I'm so happy you said that! I'm never too sure if I'm doing Beca's whole understanding of the world well or accurately because I've never experienced anything to particularly limit my understanding, and I don't really know anyone other than children who don't have as much understanding as the general public, so I'm happy you think it was done correctly! In which case, I hope all the thoughts in this chapter were accurate, or seem accurate too! Aw, thank you! It's great to be back!**

Hetwaszoietsals: **Yes, I loved writing her first ice cream! Haha, I get the same feeling about her father. We'll meet him for the first time next chapter! I'm happy you're interested, and I hope you liked this chapter!**

UnfamiliarSky: **Dude whenever I see your username I have to smile. Oof yeah, I feel like each chapter is holding clues, some that I don't even realise are there haha. Oof, I don't know if I mentioned it before either, if I have, it must've been pretty minute. Ahhh bless! I'm so glad you like it so much that you're keeping track haha. And gosh, so do I! She's absolutely precious. God, I know, like I hadn't been online in a while and suddenly it was gone! YOU'RE THE BEST. I MEAN IT! ALSO I SAW YOUR PM WHEN YOU SENT IT TO ME BUT I ASSUME I MUST'VE BEEN DOING SOMETHING BECAUSE FOR WHATEVER REASON I THOUGHT I NEED TO REPLY TO THAT LATER AND I COMPLEELY SPACED UNTIL NOW! BUT YOU KEEP ME GOING, SERIOUSLY! Also, I think you might've updated your words fic and I haven't read it yet so I'm excited to do that! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, especially as it was a bigger insight into Beca's thought processes!**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Janitor and the Music Teacher Chapter 8**

Lunch had ended on a high note, which both Beca and Chloe were pleased about. They arranged a time to tell the principal – at the next staff meeting – and the janitor couldn't be happier with what she'd done. Had she not sat down with Cameron, and given him what she knew he needed, then the bullying would only continue to get worse. And she didn't want that happening to him or to anyone.

Chloe spent her free period in the staff room after lunch, writing down in her notebook all she had witnessed throughout lunch. It seemed as though Beca understood a lot about Cameron's situation, and she had said that high school wasn't the best time for her before, so the redhead suspected Beca had been through a similar bullying issue. It was like the brunette could see both sides of the story – she was keen on helping Cameron, but she seemed to be weary about telling the principal too, whereas Chloe, having never been bullied before, had the immediate thought that telling the principal was a necessary thing to do after seeing how much this was affecting Cameron.

She added _bullied in high school_ to the list.

Chloe sat, balancing her pencil on the top of her lip, for a good five minutes. She still couldn't piece much together, other than the bullying must have contributed to Beca's anxiety and shyness. Tonight would be interesting, though, and maybe she'll be able to piece together a lot more once she meets Beca's father for the first time. Even the thought of meeting him put a sort of dread in her stomach. Beca did not talk highly of her dad, at all. The music teacher had heard nothing about a mother, but her father had definitely restricted her when she was a kid. What kind of parent didn't allow their daughter to have ice cream, and made it practically inaccessible considering she had to do good in school to get some? Going to Beca's childhood home would probably be a little eye-opening too, and the redhead made a mental note to make sure she kept an eye on Beca's reactions, especially if it looked like the janitor seemed stiffer and stutter around her father. And, she was excited to get her bike fixed. Sure, it was a bitch to her, but her bike led her to hanging out more with Beca, and she loved to hang out with Beca.

Maybe even a little too much.

But she ignored that feeling.

It wasn't important right now…maybe in the long run, but not now.

The redhead sighed and put her notebook to the side, getting up to make a coffee. She was going to need as much liquid luck as she could get if she was going to stay alert all night.

—

"Hey!" Chloe called from here she was leaning against her car – she'd been keeping an eye on the exits and watched as her friend stepped outside and squinted to look around the car park. The redhead chuckled softly to herself as she watched Beca jump slightly and whirl round to face her, before a small smile graced her features and she began to walk over.

For whatever reason, Chloe had always assumed that Beca came to work in her janitor's uniform, as that was all she ever saw the brunette in. But right now, Beca was carrying a full rucksack with the edge of a sleeve poking out of it, and had on the same leather jacket she wore each Sunday, a white, short-sleeve button up and black jeans.

"Hi, Chloe." Beca greeted her softly, looking down at her hands and fiddling with her shirt.

"Let me take your bag,"

Beca looked up at her and moved to grab the straps. "Take it where?"

"Just the back of my car," The redhead assured her.

She watched carefully as Beca took a deep breath and gave her bag up. It almost felt like Beca didn't trust her, which she knew wasn't the case. To be honest, even when Chloe asked for the address Beca seemed hesitant to respond – the teacher couldn't help but wonder if Beca was more jittery due to it being her father they were going to see.

"So is this the house you grew up in?" Chloe asked her once they'd driven off.

She glanced at the small brunette in the passenger seat, but Beca was staring out of the window. "Yeah…" she said absentmindedly. "I haven't gone in a car in ages, since Christmas."  
It was October.

"You cycle everywhere?!" Chloe asked.

Beca nodded. "To school and the park and the gingerbread shop and…my dad's."

"Not the grocery store?"

"They give it to me at my house."

"I wish I could bike everywhere, that would be so cool," the redhead grinned as she turned a corner.

Beca scoffed. "It's not. It gets tiring even though I'm used to it. I'd rather drive."

"The grass is always greener." Chloe shrugged.

"What?"

"It's an idiom. Humans always want more than what they have, or what they see someone else has that they don't. I see you have a bike, and I want to do that, whereas you see I have a car and you'd rather have a car than a bike. The grass is always greener on the other side of the meadow, no matter where you're looking from." Chloe explained. She wondered if she should continue using words and phrases Beca probably doesn't know so she could teach Beca but in a way that seems like she's teaching inadvertently, or if she shouldn't as Beca didn't seem to like having to always ask questions.

Then again, she'd never learn without help.

"So...I want to be a musician, does that mean musicians want to not be musicians?"

Chloe smiled softly, glancing at her friend. "Not quite, it only applies to some cases."

"I...I don't understand, sorry." The janitor sighed quietly.

"Beca, you don't need to apologise." Chloe said, before taking a deep breath. "Okay. So, let's say you had an apple and I had a banana. I may be content with my banana, but if I see you have an apple, we've conditioned ourselves to want the apple instead. Whereas, if you were happy with the apple and you saw my banana, maybe you'd want the banana instead. Humans have always been like this, right back to when we were cavemen and stole each other's food. Both the banana and the apple are great snacks in their own ways, but they're different and we want what's different to what we have. Do you understand that?"

"Yes."

"Great. And sometimes, with musicians wanting not to be, that's true. They may look at a normal person in a normal office job and wish they could do that instead of be famous, whereas the normal person would wish for fame. But, that's only sometimes. So it doesn't always work, not everyone wants to be something else. Some people are content with what they have - they may see the grass across the way and shrug because it looks greener, but in reality it's no better than their own patch of grass. Do you understand that?"

Beca took a moment to think it over, before nodded. "Yes, thank you. You...you're better at explaining things than my dad."

"How does he do it?" Chloe asked before she could stop herself.

Beca shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think he likes it when I don't understand the first time."

"Does he get angry?"

"Yeah…"

The redhead spared a glance at Beca and saw she was fidgeting more so than before. She didn't want to make the janitor antsy, especially not tonight, so she thought it best to leave the conversation there and made a mental note to maybe ask Beca another time when she didn't seem quite so nervous. Chloe looked back at the road ahead and gnawed at her lip, before pressing a button on her steering wheel. Her 'old songs' playlist shuffled itself, and she chuckled at the small gasp Beca let out as she was startled by the sudden music. She could see the brunette physically relax slightly, and Chloe smiled – whenever she wasn't feeling great, she listened to this playlist and it made her calmer. She hoped it would have the same effect on her friend.

—

"T-This is it." Beca said quietly as Chloe pulled up next to the sidewalk.

"It's really nice," Chloe said in awe, looking up at the large house. Already, she could deduce Beca's father's wealth just from where he lived; it was the nicer part of their town, and the house was a big, beautiful red-brick house - Chloe could count eleven panelled windows just by looking at the front of the house - with a nice grey roof and at least three chimneys. She knew Beca lived in a small apartment, and it made her slightly frustrated seeing as though the janitor's father had so much money but Beca wasn't living anywhere particularly desirable.

Even the front lawn seemed to be mowed to perfection.

"Thanks." Came the soft whisper from the other girl as she got out of the car with a deep breath.

Chloe followed her, noticing a large oak tree as she did so. There was a wooden swing hanging from the branch, and she smiled at the thought of a child Beca playing on it.

"Can you open the back please?" Beca brought her out of her thoughts, and Chloe let out a small 'oh!', quickly pressing her car keys.

Chloe remembered the real reason they were here once she opened the boot of her car to find her muddy, mangled bike sat pathetically in the backseat. Making a face at it, she heaved it out onto the sidewalk and waited for Beca to grab her backpack before locking the car.

The redhead waited for Beca to start walking towards the house, but the janitor didn't move an inch. She needed prompting.

"Ready?" Chloe asked lightly, moving to begin pushing her bike up the path.

Only nodding, Beca started to walk alongside her. Chloe was watching the girl's every move. She seemed to take another deep breath as she rang the doorbell and stepped back to wait.

It was almost immediate that the large, cherry-wood door was swung open and a middle-aged man appeared from the other side of the threshold. He had hair slightly lighter than Beca's, and his eyes were brown and not blue, but Chloe could tell immediately that he was her father just by the resemblance in facial and eye shape. His smile was warm. Incredibly warm, in fact – he looked very nice.

"Beca!" he spoke cheerfully, hurrying to give his daughter a hug. Chloe watched carefully as Beca seemed to stiffen slightly in his arms, but at first glance the redhead couldn't understand why. All of the doubts she had about Beca's father had almost immediately dissipated at the sight of the man. He let go and raised his eyebrows. "How about you introduce me to your friend, sweetheart,"

"Hi, dad," Beca said politely, not meeting his eyes as she pulled back from the hug to stand next to her friend. "T-This is my f-friend Chloe,"

"Lovely to meet you, Chloe," Ben smiled warmly, gripping Chloe's hand in a tight handshake.

"You too, sir."

"Please, come in. Where did you meet Beca?" Ben moved out of the way so Chloe and Beca could walk past.

The redhead walked in first, rolling her mangled bike into the hallway. It was pristine inside the house, with white walls and a chandelier just upon entrance. As Chloe walked inside, she could've sworn she heard a sharp intake of breath from behind her, but when she turned back around Ben was smiling at her and Beca was facing away from them, closing the door.

"Oh, we work at school together," Chloe said. "I teach music there,"

"Ahh…" Ben nodded. "But…surely you don't really work together? If she's just a janitor and you're a teacher,"

Chloe bit down on her lip hard to make sure she didn't snap at Ben – 'just a janitor' was such an awful thing to say, but it's normalised so often that Chloe couldn't tell if it was purposeful or not.

"Oh, no, we totes do. Beca and I are often in the same place at the same time, working. And we eat lunch together, too. The only real difference between our jobs is that she works longer hours, which I have so much respect for. In fact, just today she helped a student out, better than any teacher could."

Beca smiled at Chloe from behind her dad – she knew Chloe was defending her a little.

"Wow," Ben said. "I stand corrected, ahaha. God, where are my manners? Chloe, would you like a drink? A little something to eat? Unless, you'd like to stay for dinner, of course. It's being prepared now,"

"Actually, dad-"

"Beca, I asked Chloe a question."

The music teacher watched how quickly Beca shut her mouth. "Uh, dinner would be great, thank you. And just a water, please."

She turned away, looking at the walls. There were pictures hanging there, mostly of Ben and another woman, with light brown hair and blue eyes. As Chloe looked through the pictures, she spotted one of just the woman and a baby, smiling and dressed in pink. Chloe took a closer look at the woman, and noticed she had a similar face shape to Beca. Moving slightly to the right, Chloe deduced that this woman was definitely Beca's mother and the baby was definitely Beca, because in the next picture there was a toddler holding a pot of bubbles and the same woman, laughing as she played with the toddler.

"She died shortly after that."

The redhead jumped and whirled around to see Ben standing behind her. "I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry about it. It was a long time ago, now. Ah, well. These things happen. Here, let me take your bike round to the garage." Ben said cheerfully – which unsettled Chloe slightly -, lifting up her broken bicycle and walking around the corner. "Beca is in the kitchen,"

Chloe found the janitor adding red sauce to a big pot, and she immediately went to sit at the island.

"It's kind of your dad to fix my bike, Bec. And then offer dinner, too."

"He only wants to find out more about you." Beca mumbled under her breath. "And use it for himself."

Chloe paused and furrowed her eyebrows. What was that supposed to mean? "Meaning…?"

Beca looked up at her, and sighed. "Nothing."

Chloe spent the half an hour before dinner asking Beca a little more about her childhood. If there was a good of a place as any to ask, it was here. She also gave Beca her grievances for the passing of her mother, but Beca had only given her a half shrug. Beca knew it was her mother's passing that turned her dad the way he was today. He never wanted to care for her alone, and Beca looked a lot like her mother - it fuelled the (albeit loving) resentment. Her added issues with understanding only made it worse. He was an English teacher and his daughter couldn't even read. It was no surprise why he mostly hated her.

Ben came back, smiley and washing the oil off of his hands. He told Chloe that her bike was fixed. It just needed careful hands to set it back into place. Beca went to quietly lay the table as Chloe thanked him gratefully.

"So, Chloe," Ben started, wrapping his spaghetti around his fork. "Where are you from?"

Beca zoned out. Chloe was taken by Ben's charm and she wasn't going to not tell him everything like Beca warned her to, she knew that. She didn't want to have to sit and watch it happen. Quietly eating her dinner, Beca's mind replayed the events of the day. She'd been proud to help Cameron, and she hoped he felt better now than he had earlier. She really had seen herself in him, which was just sad, considering her entire high school career consisted of bullying. What used to hurt her the most, though, is that whenever she would tell her dad that she hated school, and she wanted to go back to homeschooling because the kids at school didn't let her catch a break, he would scoff and tell her she deserved it. A sixteen year old who couldn't read was deserving of being pushed around and laughed at and taunted. A sixteen year old who couldn't help who she was deserved to be treated like shit because of it.

She remembered when the school first met with her father to talk about how much she was struggling. They had to sit in the headteacher's office, and Beca had to remain silent as she listened to the Principal quiz her father on his methods of homeschool because she didn't know anything at all and it was worrying. Beca had never heard of anything her father explained that day. According to him, Beca was stricken with grief from when her mother died after all these years, and because Beca was just learning the alphabet with her mother when she passed, whenever he used to try and teach her at age 3 and 4, she would cry and scream that only her mother could teach her. Ben explained that no matter what he did, she refused to learn, and now she just can't.

It was bullshit.

Ben had _promised_ that she didn't need to be tested for dyslexia or anything of the sort, because it was her own fault for refusing to learn from the beginning. He explained that he, as an English teacher himself, couldn't teach her the basics, and if he couldn't - being the person she trusted the most - then nobody could.

The principal concluded that, as her father, Ben knew what he was talking about and said it was a shame that she couldn't learn anymore. They talked about her as if she wasn't in the room, and Ben said he thought it best she stayed in school due to the possibility that she may pick something up at some point.

In the car home, Ben shouted at her. The insults she heard everyday came out - idiot, pillock, stupid bitch. It always hurt more when it was her father yelling them. When they got home, he hit her. It was a punch, right across her cheek. She fell to the floor, and her hand flew to her throbbing cheek. He told her that she had humiliated him, and didn't deserve all the time he reserved for his stupid daughter.

Beca believed him.

"Right, Becs?"

"Sorry?" Beca blinked confusedly.

"You should be listening, Beca." Ben scolded her immediately.

Something dawned on Beca then. With Chloe here, Ben couldn't do anything but be nice. He couldn't snap at her.

She could use this to her advantage.

"But dad, I've been listening to you my entire life and now I'm only a janitor...I rather not listen anymore." She said, laughing as if telling a joke. Chloe chuckled softly, not entirely knowing whether she should or not, and Ben cocked his head before smiling at her. But Beca could see through the smile. Sure, she didn't always understand people's expressions, but she knew he was angry. She could see it in his eyes.

And he couldn't do a thing about it.

"I was saying how you love the piano, Becs," Chloe said, nudging her slightly before popping a meatball into her mouth.

"Oh, yeah, I love it. It's uh, it's nice being taught good for once." Beca said pointedly, nodding. She'd never felt this free in front of her father before; it was exhilarating.

Chloe nodded too, looking back down at her bowl. Beca was being really confident all of a sudden, and she couldn't understand why. Whatever the reason, it was a nice change from how jittery Beca had been before.

Deciding she wanted to know what he would say, as she was slightly confused by Ben's appearance and Beca's idea of him, Chloe asked "Ben, what's your favourite memory of Beca from when she was little?"

She noticed how the man's fist clenched slightly.

"It's probably helping me after I got hurt so often,  
you helped all the time didn't you dad?" Beca leant into the palm of her hand.

Ben looked at her, and chuckled. "You were always falling over, sweetie. I'd say my favourite memory is...teaching her to ride a bike."

"My parents couldn't teach me to ride one, but Beca's been doing a great job so far!" Chloe smiles, before picking up her napkin. The air was tense, and she needed a small break. "Excuse me, where's the bathroom?"

"Right through there," Ben smiled, pointing towards a door.

Beca felt her usual nervousness creep it's way back as she watched Chloe leave. Turning back to her father, she bit her lip as she looked at him: he was livid.

"How dare you." Ben hissed at her, red-faced.

Now scared of what he might do, Beca moved to stand up and started to utter an excuse when he gripped onto her small wrist, digging his nails into her arm. Beca winced and kept her eyes down.

"How _dare_ you try and humiliate me? You little stupid bitch, when will you learn?"

"I-I'm sorry-"

"No you're not." Ben glared at her. His grip on her wrist tightened, and he twisted his hand slightly. "After all I've - fucking _look_ at me, Rebecca."

Bottom lip wobbling and that familiar feeling of guilt seeping into her chest, Beca met his angry eyes.

"After all I've done for you - gotten you the best fucking job someone like you could ever get, helped you label your dumb products, tried my _best_ to teach you, Fed you, provided for you - this is how you repay me? Actively embarrassing me in front of your friend? You think everything you said tonight doesn't have consequences? Did you really think I wasn't going to reprimand you? Do you know what reprimand means?"

Beca was shaking now. She shook her head, imagining all the bad things it could mean.

"Answer me!" Ben snapped. "Answer me." He hissed again, clearly trying to keep his voice down.

"N-N-No." Beca whimpered. "Y-You're hurting me…"

"I didn't think you did." He said maliciously, tightening his grip and making her whimper again. "Shut up. You think you deserve that woman? Do you really think you, out of everyone else, deserve a friend? Do you?"

"N-No."

"What do you deserve?"

"N-Nothing."

"Stop stuttering."

"I-I'm s-sor-"

"I said." He pulled her closer and gritted his teeth. "Stop. Stuttering."

"Yes dad." Beca said slowly, trying not to cry or let her voice shake.

"You're a pathetic, useless, ungrateful little bitch. If you dare disrespect me again, your father who loves you and cares for you constantly, your father who put up with you when nobody else would, We _will_ be having _much_ bigger problems. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Dad. I-I'm sorry."

"You better be sorry, Rebecca. This is unacceptable."

In the bathroom, Chloe could hear it all. She suddenly felt so stupid for leaving Beca alone with her father. Ben had been nice to her since the moment they met...but she should never have let her guard down about him, not after what Beca had alluded to in the past. Now, she could hear everything clearly. The abuse. It was verbal abuse. No wonder Beca was so shy. No wonder she flinched when Chloe touched her, no wonder she didn't believe in herself. It sounded like he was hurting her, too. The redhead felt like sobbing. Beca sounded so terrified, yet so apologetic. She hadn't done anything wrong, not in Chloe's eyes. What hurt the most, was that Chloe wasn't silly. She knew she couldn't go and stop this, she couldn't defend Beca, and she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't even call the police - nobody would believe Ben to be an abuser when he seemed so lovely. When the house seemed so perfect. Not even she could believe it entirely until she heard it for herself. All she could do was be a bystander.

Slowly and carefully, Chloe unlocked the bathroom door and opened it. She saw Ben pulling Beca in for a warm hug. But Beca was stiff, and clearly shaken. Chloe noticed her wrist immediately - it had purple marks on it.

Bruises.

They weren't there before.

Chloe felt sick.

"Aww!" She said sweetly. "Ben, thank you so so much for dinner, it was lovely. And thank you for fixing my bike. I'm so sorry but I hadn't realised how late it was! I promised my sister I'd babysit my niece tonight."

"Ohh, are you sure you can't stay for dessert?" Ben pulled back from the hug.

Chloe looked at her friend - she was shaking, cradling her wrist and barely even breathing.

"No, I won't be able to. I'm sorry." Chloe said curtly. "Are you alright, Bec?"

"She banged her wrist. Ever the clumsy one, my Beca." Ben chuckled.

Chloe chuckled with him too, out of necessity. She was fast to get her bike back, and in the next few minutes the front door had closed and Beca and Chloe were walking down the path back to the car.

The redhead turned back and took one last look at the house. She understood now why it looked so perfect – too perfect – it had to. Without perfection, somebody would be fast to assume that something was wrong inside. She huffed out a humourless chuckle; Ben was smart. He kept everything on the outside pristine, even his relationship with his daughter seemed pristine at first glance. However, the inside was far from perfect.

Chloe was disgusted.

She couldn't believe how deceiving looks could be. Despite knowing Beca's childhood hadn't been great, she still walked up to the house with visions of a little girl and her father playing on the lawn and swinging on the – now abandoned – swing hanging from the oak tree. She had visions of a sleepy little girl being carried through those large double doors at the end of a long day, visions of a father and maybe even a mother decorating the house in its entirety in Christmas decorations, visions of the little girl running outside excitedly pulling her father along…

But now, her visions were entirely different.

Now that she'd truly seen just a fraction of how Beca gets treated, she couldn't imagine anything but a small, gloomy and sometimes crying girl sitting alone on that desolate swing, a girl staring longingly out of the window from the second floor as the kids played on the street below, a man lunging towards the window and peering outside before closing the blinds. A brunette teenager picking up a bike and cycling away.

Turning away from the house, Chloe let out a deep sigh as she watched Beca walking ahead of her cradling her wrist. She wished she could've said a piece of her mind tonight, told Ben about himself and about how smart his daughter truly is. She'd hated having to keep the smile on her face and pretend, she hated being a bystander. But she knew there was nothing to be done, at least not now.

The last thing she wanted to do was make the situation worse.

 **A/N: hi! I'm so so sorry that it's been so long since the last update! I've been so busy with exams and the school musical and drama and extracurriculars that I've honestly had no time whatsoever to write! I'm in GCSE year now so it's getting pretty busy. I wish I could have a time for when the next chapter should be up, but I don't. Hopefully it won't take five months, but just know that no matter how long it takes I have every intention in continuing this story. I love writing it so so much.**

 **Anyway, thank you all for reading this chapter! It was very long which I hope compensates a little for the wait, and pretty dramatic towards the end, but don't worry, things will calm down over the next couple of chapters :)**

 **I'm sorry, but I'll have to answer your reviews next chapter, but just know that I read every one and appreciate you all so so much!**


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